


Convergence

by sky_fish



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Coming of Age, Domestic Violence, Family Drama, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Romance, Slice of Life, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-24 09:48:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 38,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10739217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_fish/pseuds/sky_fish
Summary: The first time model student Sakurai Sho has to participate in imposition is also the first time he meets the school's misfit Ninomiya Kazunari. When their first conversation consists of Sho scolding Nino for smoking, it is clear that they won't get along. But the better Sho gets to know Nino, the more he is drawn to the boy and soon he even finds out his worst secret…





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposting from my lj. Originally written for rainbow_teatime in the 2016 Arashiexchange. I have to admit that this story became deeper than I initially planned but I hope you guys will like it nonetheless. As always, huge thanks to my most lovely mental support wendyjoly and my irreplaceable beta jtaytt!

Never before had model student Sakurai Sho done anything at school that could earn him detention or imposition. Never. But today, he did something wrong, for the first time in his life, and _of course_ the teacher had to catch him and his friend and classmate Ohno Satoshi red-handed.

Ohno was now standing next to his friend, spacing out like so very often. This wasn't the first time he was scolded by a teacher, so for him it wasn't such a big deal. His parents might scold him a little when he would go home today, but they would forget, just like he would, and there’s no damage done. But for Sho it would be different.

In general, Sho wasn't the type to do something inappropriate or something that might get him into trouble. He didn't want to go home after school having to tell his parents why a teacher had scolded him or even called their home to inform them about their son's misbehaviour. He was a model student, for God's sake, and he would try his best to maintain this hard-earned image in front of his family. In order to make sure about that, the student now was asking his teacher not to tell his parents about the incident. No, he was even _begging_ the teacher.

"I'll do anything you want me to and I promise, I'll never do that again, but please, please don't call my parents!" OK, he might be sounding a bit desperate but for Sho it was like his life was at stake.

The teacher just shook his head, wondering what he should do with these two guys. Knowing Ohno, it was clear that the student would not really be affected by any punishment he would have to endure but for Sho, probably everything was going to be a disaster just because he was going to be punished. In the end, Ohno was sent to detention after classes for a couple of hours, while Sho was assigned to imposition that consisted of some cleaning duties on the school grounds - picking up trash from the baseball field, to be exact. He would be allowed to go home after he finished and they would never ever talk about it again.

"This can't be true," Sho murmured as he dragged his feet towards the sport's field after classes.

This was a disgrace! It was the first time ever, in his 12 years of attending school, that something like this happened to him. And all of this just because he thought he should be _helping_ his friend! Yeah, of course he knew it had been a bad idea, a _very_ bad idea, and he surely learned his lesson. However, the outcome couldn't be changed now and so Sho would just have to deal with the punishment. There were bigger catastrophes in the world, right? At least, his teacher promised not to tell his parents, so his reputation would be safe and the incident would be forgotten sooner than he might expect.

Sho didn't know yet, but contradictory to his expectations though, this day would eventually become a highly memorable one for him.

When the student arrived at the baseball field, he immediately spotted a boy, already sitting there within the small grandstand, facing the field.

"Great, exactly what I need – an audience," Sho murmured, sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Or companionship, in case the boy was there for the same reason as Sho... Judging from the blazer he was wearing, it must be a fellow student at keast, probably one of the first or second year, since Sho didn't recognize him when he approached him.

The boy's hair was a pitch-black mess, and spiking in all directions. He had his feet crossed nonchalantly on top of the seat of the row in front of him and seemed to be deep in thoughts, one of his hands in his blazer's pocket while holding a cigarette in the other, slowly taking a puff. Sho stopped a few meters away, cringing at the sight of the boy smoking and the unpleasant smell that slowly but surely invaded his nostrils. He sighed before he took a few more steps closer.

"Hi…," Sho said as he stopped at the end of the row. The other student was still about four seats away from him. The boy didn't react and just continued smoking, as if he hadn't heard Sho talking at all. The student cleared his throat and waved his hand at the other boy in a big gesture, trying to catch his attention. "I said Hi!"

Slowly, the sitting boy turned his head, facing Sho with slightly hazy, brown eyes, the cigarette still between his lips, waiting to take another puff before he lowered his hand and blinked. His eyes cleared up and now, the boy was staring at Sho, critically. The latter swallowed. Somehow, the student's aura was a bit strange. Unapproachable, maybe even a little scary.

"Hi...," Sho repeated for the third time, offering an insecure smile.

The other boy sighed, not making any effort to return the greeting. "…What do you want?" he asked instead.

Sho frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what are you doing here, idiot?" the black-haired student replied after another sigh and a slight roll of his eyes which ended in looking at the other boy from the corner of his eye.

"How friendly," Sho remarked, but of course, he didn't expect a reply. "Are you here for cleaning duties?" Sho wanted to confirm. Either he wasn't the only one getting punished for doing something (probably) stupid, or he was just unlucky and would have to do his task with that weirdo watching him picking up trash while having a smoke.

"I am, obviously," the student replied in an annoyed voice, even if it was obvious that he was doing anything but cleaning at the moment. "And _you_?"

"I have to help you clean the field, as it seems...," Sho replied, scratching his chin, not daring to look at the other.

The boy snorted, and Sho looked at him, a bit confused, meeting a sceptical look with arched eyebrows. "Are you kidding me? _Sakurai Sho_ doing impositions?"

"So you know who I am…," Sho sighed. Damned. He at least had hoped to meet someone who didn't know him so that words about his punishment won’t spread too widely. Well, no.

"Of course, who doesn't? Elite student, member of the basketball team, son of a family of doctors, top of the best list at school, popular... people are talking about you, you know?" his fellow student chuckled slightly amused. "Tell me. What did you do to get punished, too much homework?" he joked.

"Not funny and I'm not going to tell you...," the other student replied, pouting slightly before pointing at the boy, and earning another frown. "Can you please stop smoking?" The young man didn't say anything but his look was easily interpreted as "Why should I?", so Sho kept on talking. "I can list several reasons for you not smoking. First, you're underage and shouldn't even have a cigarette in your hand. Second, if the authorities see you like this you won't finish imposition so soon, since, obviously, smoking on the school grounds is forbidden for students. Third, I hate the smell and fourth, it's really bad for your health."

"As expected from a doctor's son...," Nino sighed but kept on smoking under Sho's critical eye. Then he added, challenging, "What are you going to tell the teachers? What will they do? Make me clean up the soccer field too? Go on."

"I'm not telling anyone, but I mean it," Sho tried again. "I'm really not a fan of passive smoke, you know?"

"I've almost finished, give me one minute," the other student mumbled, annoyed.

"You really should quit smoking," Sho kept on, as he was on fire now, trying another strategy to reach his goal. "You're increasing the chance to die from lung cancer for you and the people around you!"

"We all have to die, sooner or later," the other boy replied, shrugging.

"Trying to be philosophical, huh? Anyway, I prefer dying later than sooner, so please!" Sho crossed his arms in front of his chest, glaring at the other.

Finally, the boy gave up. "OK, fine, Mr. Moral," he sighed heavily before stabbing out his cigarette on the front seat, creating a small dark burn mark on the plastic. "Satisfied?!"

"I should confiscate your cigarette package," Sho grumbled.

"I might chop your head off if you try," the boy grumbled back.

Sho gulped but didn't let his insecurity show. People who threatened others were usually just talking big, weren't they? At least, the boy in front of him had neither the stature of a rowdy nor… wait, was that a bruise on his chin?!

"What's your name?" Sho simply asked, trying to hide his sudden nervousness about getting involved with an assumed troublemaker. After all, he wasn't in the mood for a fight, – not that he had any experience with fights - even if he had wanted to convey his morals. "Which class are you in?"

The boy stood up - causing Sho to stiffen and take a step back instinctively - and let out a soft chuckle. He looked at Sho while pushing his hands inside his trousers' pockets.

"Not that it is going to concern you but my name is Nino. Class 2-4. And don't worry, I won't hit you."

"Nino?" the other student frowned. "What's your full name?"

"Everybody just calls me that, and that's enough," Nino replied, starting to approach Sho, no, passing him and actually going onto the baseball field, as it seemed.

Sho, his body relaxing again as he realized that the boy most likely wouldn't pose any danger to him, said, "Uhm… well, isn't it odd, calling you by your nick name? We don't know each other that well after all."

"In fact, I don't give a fuck about how you call me, Sakurai _-san_ ," the younger replied, sending the other student a cheeky look.

Sho swallowed but didn't say anything. He could definitely feel the sarcasm throbbing from the polite suffix the other used and once more he noticed that it didn't matter _what_ people addressed others, revealing their real politeness was a matter of intonation and behaviour, more than words.

"Now will Your Grace come give me a hand or not?" Nino asked, turning back when he reached the cleaning tools that would be used to pick up garbage and straighten out the field. It seemed that he had prepared them already – maybe being too used to such tasks, Sho assumed.

"If you stop giving me weird nicknames," Sho sighed, deciding to ignore the other's annoying attitude for the rest of the afternoon. This would be "fun" enough already, so the sooner they could finish this task and the sooner they would be able to go their separate ways again, the better.

\+ + +

In the end, Sho and Nino didn't spend more than just a couple of hours together, picking up the trash from the last practice baseball match. They didn't even exchange that many words either after Sho convinced the other to put out his cigarette. But Sho had to admit that for some reason it was hard for him to forget about their encounter. That Nino guy had something special about him that Sho couldn't pinpoint yet. It was just a feeling. The boy was definitely different. Different from all the other people Sho knew from school, whether they were his friends or simple acquaintances, and that meant something, considering the fact that Ohno was quite "different" already.

Without even realizing, Sho actually kept his eyes out for Nino in the next morning. He was not even sure _why_ he was trying to spot the student somewhere in the yard or along the corridors of the school building. However, so far, he wasn't lucky. There was one option left though, that Sho had not checked out yet, feeling too strange about going that far to find out the boy's class. But as fate would have it, there was another, less conspicuous source that Sho could turn to.

"Do you happen to know someone called "Nino", Jun? He said he's in your class," Sho took the chance during lunch break when he and Ohno settled into their usual place in the cafeteria together with his other best friend, and second year student, Matsumoto Jun.

The boy was unwrapping a home-made, overly filled sandwich, and about to take a huge bite when he looked at his friend, wondering. "Nino? You mean Ninomiya? Ninomiya Kazunari?"

"Is that his full name?" Sho asked immediately. "He only told me his nickname..."

"True, he's in my class… he's... kind of a weird guy," Jun replied, chewing on his sandwich.

"Tell me more about him," the older student requested, unable to hide his curiosity while he opened his own lunch box – rice with plums, egg rolls and a few pieces of fried chicken. As always, his mother's cooking looked delicious, and Ohno wished to try some. Sho, as always, granted his friend’s request.

Jun frowned, obviously wondering what he could or should tell his friend. "Well, how shall I put it… he's mostly quiet, almost not noticeable during classes but when he says something it's usually a bummer. He has this strange sarcastic humour, you see? If he's talking, his words are poisonous."

"True," Sho chuckled without noticing at first, remembering the boy's witty mouth despite his calm and thoughtful aura. It's true, what the other said to him had been dripping with irony and sarcasm.

"I have no idea about his grades," Jun continued. "I never paid attention to him, but he's not in the top 10 of our year, that much I can tell." Of course, Jun could tell, since _he_ was leading the top 10 of the second year and his name was always on the top of the scoreboard when test results got out. "Hm… what else… It seems he tends to get into trouble, I noticed bruises on his face and arms a few times… he's not exactly popular, you know? Why do you ask?"

"I met him at the baseball field yesterday during cleaning duties," Sho explained, without hesitation.

"Why were you at cleaning duties?" Jun frowned at his friend.

Oops. "I… uhm well…," the older student tilted his head. Even in front of his best friend it was embarrassing to admit his mistake.

"He helped me cheat in the simulation university entrance exam," Ohno, who kept quiet until now, decided to chime in before he yawned, his own lunch long finished. "And Macchi-sensei caught us."

Confused, Jun frowned even more. "Why would you do something like that, Sho?"

"I just wanted to help…"

The younger student rolled his eyes. "It wasn't even a _real_ exam! Guys, you're so stupid, really."

"I know," Sho sighed, burying his face in his hands.

Ohno patted his shoulder and offered him a tired smile. "Don't worry, Sho, I will never ask you to do something like that for me, again. I'm sorry," the student said.

"Thanks," the other murmured, grateful for his friend's understanding.

"So?" Ohno asked, showing real interest in the conversation for the very first time. "What about Nino? Why are you so curious about him?"

"I don't know…," Sho tilted his head. "He has that… aura? Somehow, he irritates me."

"You wouldn't be the first person saying that," Jun snorted.

"What about his friends?" the other asked curiously.

Jun hummed. "If you can call it friendship, I think he knows Aiba-kun. Or the other way round… but that's it. He's more a loner, I think."

"As expected," Sho nodded slowly, finishing his fried chicken. 

\+ + +

What surprised him a lot more, though, was something that happened a few days later. Sho was back in the cafeteria together with Jun, Ohno and a few more classmates, and they were planning their weekend. Unexpectedly, Nino – wearing headphones - passed them (it was the first time Sho saw him walking in the cafeteria) and even more surprisingly, Ohno waved his hand to attract the boy's attention.

"Oh, hey Nino!" he greeted, loud enough to make the other stop.

Nino pulled off his headphones for a while when he stopped next to Ohno, looking a bit confused. He nodded at the student, before he quickly let his look brush over the rest of the people sitting around the table. Nino averted his eyes quickly, focusing back on Ohno, but Sho was 100 % sure that their eyes had met for a second.

"It’s been a while. How are you doing?" Ohno asked with his usual chilled friendly smile.

Nino was still looking at him, obviously not really getting what was going on. Well, he wasn't the only one in this, Sho thought, still surprised over Ohno's actions.

"How are _you_ doing?" the boy asked back, arching his eyebrows.

Ohno chuckled softly. "Avoiding questions as always, huh?"

"I have nothing to tell, you can't blame me, Oh-chan."

Did Nino just say "Oh-chan"?! Sho frowned, pointing his finger from Ohno to Nino and back, giving his friend a questioning look.

"Wait, you know each other?"

Ohno nodded. "We live in the same neighbourhood."

"Really? Why didn't you tell me?" Sho asked indignantly.

"Is it important?" His friend shrugged, brushing away Sho's complaint before he turned back to Nino. "How is it, do you want to drop by at my party on Friday evening?"

Sho pulled in some air sharply, and grabbed Ohno's elbow, making him turn to him. "Satoshi! I told you it's a bad idea to hold a party –"

"Oh come on Sho," the other student rolled his eyes. "You're the only one sitting at this table who thinks so, including Jun! Where's the fun of being alone at home if I don't take the chance to throw a small party?" He turned back. "Nino?"

"Will there be alcohol?" the black-haired boy asked nonchalantly.

Sho jumped up, slamming his hands on the table. "We're under-age!"

"Scream even louder and the next teacher will come over and question you before you even nipped on a beer," Nino hissed, glaring at Sho critically. "Being under-age doesn't mean there can't be alcohol at a party, Mr. Risks-are-no-fun."

"There _might_ be alcohol," Ohno answered, slowly nodding his head before he turned to his classmates, who hummed agreement.

"Satoshi!"

"What?" the other arched an eyebrow at Sho. "It's not in my power what people will bring to the party. I only provide some snacks, an open door and some music."

"I'll think about it," Nino finally replied, his hands already on his headphones to pull them back over his ears.

"Great," Ohno smiled, counting this as acceptance. "You know where my house is. See you there."

Sho couldn't help but gape after Nino, who only lifted his hand to make a nonchalant wave gesture at Ohno without looking back, and then shot his friend with a death glare.

\+ + +

There _was_ alcohol at Ohno’s party on Friday evening. Beer, to be exact. Lots of beer. And lots of people. And Sho didn’t really like it, wondering what even made him agree to come here in the first place. Was it because Ohno was one of his best friends and had insisted on him joining them? Was it because Sho couldn’t help but feel a bit responsible for his fellow students and wanted to keep an eye on them so that nothing bad would happen (like one of the Ohnos’ neighbours taking down the party by calling the police or something)? Or was it because of the tiny little bit of curiosity, that made him wondering if Nino would really show up at Ohno’s party, like he said?

Well, OK, the boy had said he’d _think_ about it, Sho dared reminding himself. That didn’t mean that he was actually planning to come here. In fact, he didn’t really look like someone who’d attend a party. And even if he came, how would it concern Sho?

To be honest, parties had never been Sho’s forte either. He enjoyed meetings with his friends in smaller groups for dinner or watching a movie. It wasn’t that Sho’s parents prohibited their son from attending parties. Since he was 16, the student was free to stay out longer on Fridays. That's as long as he abode by the rules - being home by 11 pm, no cigarettes, no alcohol, no drugs, no… yeah, the usual stuff 17-year-olds probably should keep their hands off anyway and of course that didn’t only apply to Sho but also to his friends.

So basically, if Sho’s parents knew that there was beer at Ohno’s party, they might not be amused and that was why Sho - even if he knew that it might probably be a stupid idea - tried to get rid of the beer. He didn’t even mind being seen as the moral police. As a future doctor, people even _expected_ him to approach them and tell them that alcohol would damage their brains and they would fail their next test if they kept on drinking. They would listen to him and nod, and yeah - keep on drinking nevertheless. It was true, Sho was popular and people liked and respected him. But well, not as much as beer, obviously.

At least Jun was listening to him, Sho thought, when his friend who was sitting next to him on a comfortable couch in Ohno’s living room, clinked glasses with him - both glasses filled with coke. Sho tried to smile, but it probably turned out strange, since he didn’t feel like smiling at all. In fact, he had tried to find Ohno, which was a bit hard in the crowd of students in this big house that the Ohnos owned, to convince him again to forbid alcohol. However, when he heard their friend Maruyama saying that Ohno had been seen going into his bedroom ("Locking the door behind him!") together with a girl, Sho gave up.

"I’ll go and catch some fresh air," the student finally said, standing up, when he ran out of things he could talk about to Jun, his mind not being able to focus properly. How ironic, since he was one of the few people who did not have distracting alcohol in his blood. If Sho hadn’t found that so stupid, he even might have laughed.

The garden was crowded, too crowded for Sho’s taste and some people seemed to have sat down in a circle to play spin-the-bottle, and as soon as he saw that, the student turned on his heel. He remembered the last time people dragged him into that game. He had ended up causing all the participating girls to try to spin the bottle at him, aiming for a kiss with the future doctor. Even if Sho had to admit that his first kiss could have been with someone much worse than Miyazaki from the parallel class, it had been one of his most embarrassing evenings up to date and Sho seriously didn’t plan to repeat that.

Keeping that in mind, Sho went back into the spacious house, making his way through some fellow students and upstairs, aiming for a - maybe - empty room with access to the balcony that lined the upper front of the Ohnos' house. Usually, Sho would access it through Ohno’s room, but if it was true that the boy was busy with a girl at the moment, Sho wasn’t sure if he wanted to try go in there. He couldn’t help but be curious though, and so he at least tried knocking on the door to his friend’s room. When he didn’t receive any reply, he tried the handle of the door only to find out that the door was indeed locked. He backed off, biting his lower lip, before trying his luck with the next door.

He actually found a couple of girls sitting on a bed, which Sho assumed to belong to Ohno’s parents, and they tried to get him to sit with them, but Sho politely declined and pointed at the balcony door, telling them he was there to breathe some fresh air.

"You probably won’t get much _fresh_ air out there," one of the girls said. "Seems to be the smoking area..."

Sho was about to sigh deeply and to consider either going back downstairs or to really join the group of girls for a chat, when his mind suddenly clicked and a thought ran through his grey cells. That thought unexpectedly triggered the exact opposite reaction he might have given, usually, his hand automatically reaching to push back the curtains from the only slightly closed door, as he decided to step outside onto the balcony.

The door immediately bumped into something - or someone - once Sho pushed it open, a painful groan followed, and even if Sho hadn’t hear it that often yet, he immediately recognized the voice. The student pushed his head through the gap of the now opened door and his suspicion was confirmed instantly as he met the eyes of the boy he had just hurt unintentionally.

Nino was standing there on the balcony, rubbing his upper arm with one hand, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips, and dartef an indignant look at Sho.

"Crap… did I hurt you?" Sho asked, quickly closing the door behind him after he stepped onto the balcony, and instinctively reaching a hand towards the boy.

"No, you didn't," Nino replied grumpily, still rubbing his arm, his hand slipped underneath the sleeves of the slightly too big black t-shirt he was wearing, imprinted with the logo of a famous rock band that Sho never had listened to.

"You look like it hurt," Sho insisted though, approaching the other. "Let me take a look."

"Hands off!" Nino exploded, unexpectedly, stepping back and glaring at Sho as if he was ready to eat him.

"What’s that?" Sho asked, spotting a large, dark bruise covering Nino’s elbow, growing a bit over his arm.

"That wasn’t the stupid balcony door," the other student replied. "Just a bruise from a fight that still hurts a little, being pushed doesn’t actually help the healing process."

"Oh… OK," Sho said. "Sorry, I didn’t see you." It was the truth, the curtain, the night’s darkness had covered the view... he really didn’t see Nino.

"Obviously," the other boy sighed, annoyed, and resumed to leaning over the balcony’s banister to look down into the garden. He reached for his cigarette, taking another puff.

Sho mirrored the boy’s gesture, putting his elbows onto the banister and looked down, spotting the group of spin-the-bottle players - Maruyama among them, as well as Jun who seemed to have joined them - before he focused his attention back onto the balcony. There were just the two of them, he and Nino, everyone else seemed to be either inside or in the garden.

"What?" Nino suddenly asked, slightly turning his head at Sho, who found himself just staring at the other boy for a few seconds now.

He startled, searching for an excuse for something he’d been doing without even realizing. "I didn’t expect you to come to the party," Sho blurt out.

"Well, since I live nearby and someone said there might be alcohol...," demonstrating, Nino reached to the place where he stood earlier, before getting pushed by Sho, and lifted a bottle of beer he had placed on the floor of the balcony.

"You should neither drink nor smoke," Sho finally said, pointing at Nino’s cigarette, trying once more to land a hit with his moralist attitude, even if he knew exactly that Nino was probably the last person it would work on.

"Oh well, if that isn't Sakurai Sho the anti-smoking-commissioner again," the boy sighed in reply, not even trying to hide his annoyance. "What are you doing up here, don’t you have to confiscate some beer bottles down there?"

Nino knew exactly that Sho didn’t have the power to do so, so the student decided to ignore the other’s comment. "I mean it. You should quit."

"This does not concern you," Nino murmured, puffing from his cigarette once more.

The sky had turned almost black now, the few lights shining from the windows of the houses as well as the tip of Nino’s cigarette soon became the only sources of light as he took another puff, blowing out the smoke, directly into Sho’s direction, who cringed.

"You'll damage your health..."

A soft chuckle reached Sho’s ears.

"As if anyone cares…," Nino said but then, he stabbed out his cigarette on the banister, flipping the cigarette butt from the balcony.

For a silly moment, Sho wondered if someone down there in the garden would be hit by it and look up to them, or if that person might probably be too drunk to even notice.

"Well, as a future doctor, of course I do care about people’s health, even if they are stupid enough to be the cause of their own death," Sho said, drily. 

Nino turned at him, probably frowning, but it was too dark for Sho now to see his expression, not even when he came a bit closer to Sho.

"Are you just saying this in order not to feel guilty if I really die from lung cancer? Or because it makes you feel like a better person?" Nino asked provokingly, leaning on the banister with only one arm now, facing Sho directly. The dim light shining through the window reflected in Nino’s eyes for a second. "Or because you can say "I told you so" if something happened?"

"You really should care about your health," Sho simply replied after a few seconds of silence. He wasn’t in the mood for a verbal fight, nor a discussion with a smoker, but he could be stubborn too.

"It's really sweet of you to pretend to be concerned about me, _Sho-chan_ ," Nino then said in a faked sweet voice, before getting even closer to Sho, until their faces were only a few centimetres apart from each other, making it possible for Sho to hear Nino’s next few whispered words. "But seriously, shut up, OK?"

"Sh-sho-chan?!" the other student stumbled, taking in a deep breath. He wasn’t sure if it was the unexpected use of his given name, the honorific or the sudden, irritating closeness of this almost stranger, but for a moment, Sho thought that his heart had stopped beating.

"Anything wrong?" Nino asked again, in his faked sweet voice.

"Uhm…," Sho stumbled. No, tried _not_ to stumble. "I mean… You don't get it, do you? You're freaking what, 16, and you're damaging your health with smoking like you don't care at all –"

Sho couldn’t even finish his sentence, when all of the sudden and completely unexpected, Nino leaned a bit forward, closing the last small distance between the two boys, blocking Sho’s poor night vision even more with his face. Suddenly, there was a strange, warm feeling on Sho’s lips, literally shutting him up. Lips. _Nino’s_ lips.

The _kiss_ \- which was the only word popping up in Sho’s mind to describe what just had happened, even if his brain tried hard to find counter arguments while screaming internally - ended as quickly as it started, so for a second, Sho even wondered if it _really_ happened. Maybe, it was just a dream? A nightmare happening during micro sleep... OK, no, Sho was not drunk nor high or anything, he wasn’t even tired, so he had to admit that this option was very unlikely, which caused his heart to beat faster in a panic with the realization of what just happened. A _kiss_ with a stranger and on top of that with that weirdo! Fuck!

Nino drew back from Sho’s face, taking his nonchalant position again, seemingly examining the other boy now, curiously, maybe even amused. Those stupid low lights made it impossible for Sho to read Nino’s expression, but he was pretty sure that the other must be grinning wickedly. If he had tried to tease Sho, to irritate him, he had reached his goal.

"What…," Sho tried to get out of his surprised stiffness. "Are you _crazy_?! What was _that_?!" he asked, instead of asking _Why_.

"Obviously, I shut you up with a kiss, _Sho-chan_ ," Nino commented cheekily before he turned to look down into the garden again, bedding his chin on his crossed arms over the banister. "But apparently, it only worked temporarily. Too bad..."

"That was…," Sho didn’t know what it was but it had definitely not been what he expected to happen during a confrontation with the other boy.

"Disgusting?" Nino offered insignificantly. "Tasted of smoke, huh?"

"…And beer," Sho added in a low voice, still trying to proceed what had just happened.

"Are you confiscating my bottle too now?" Nino asked, before he reached for the said object to take another sip from it.

Sho was still staring at the boy. He knew he had to react now. Somehow. Just _somehow_ or... yeah... or what? No matter what would happen, Sho wanted to get back control over the situation. Not that he always felt in control when it came to Nino but still... he needed to do something about this. He cleared his throat and pulled himself together. He was ready for this confrontation. Nothing happened, he would just pretend that nothing happened, and everything would go back to being fine.

"No, I'm not," the older student replied, trying to stay as calm as possible. "In fact, I give up and just hope that no one in the neighbourhood will call the police. Everyone is doing what they want to do anyway."

Nino hummed, agreeing. "That's how it works, _Sho-chan_."

"Stop calling me like that!" Sho said sharply, his voice unintentionally hitting a high pitch.

No, he wasn’t about to freak out. He was just... For some reason, Sho didn’t know what he was anymore. Fuck. That just now had been a _kiss_ , Sho thought, panicking, his heart pounding like crazy. A kiss with someone he had only met a couple of times in school, not even exchanging some conversation beyond Sho’s opinion about smoking. And now, they had _kissed_!? Sho couldn’t even put into words, how much he hated this right now. Instinctively, he let his look fall over the banister, down into the garden, to check if someone witnessed them. No one, he thought in relief, at least it might have been too dark already for someone to witness this embarrassing scene...

"Why? Aren't we close enough for your taste?" Nino chuckled, jokingly, of course, what else. "Come on, _Sho-chan_ , practically we even _kissed_ already."

"We did _not_ kiss!" Sho said firmly, trying to act against all the voices screaming in his head at once.

"Oh…," the other boy faked sympathy. "Was that your first kiss? Did I steal it?"

"No!" Sho tried to make clear instantly. "That's not what I meant! You just wanted to shut me up, that’s it! So... it doesn't count as a kiss!"

Nino shrugged. "If you say so…"

"I'll pretend that it never happened so don't mention it again," Sho said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Exactly, this had _not_ been a kiss. At least, it wasn’t _considered_ a kiss. It was a disqualified kiss...

"Whatever," Nino shrugged again. "So what are you going to do now? Going home? If someone calls the police, you'll get in trouble as much as everybody else here..."

"I know but…," admittedly, Sho had a hard time focusing onto something else other than his still pounding heart. "I don't want to leave Ohno alone. Last time he got drunk it wasn't fun…"

"Then why are you up here with me and not down there to watch over him?" Nino asked, challenging.

"I... he... he’s in his room and with a girl right now so probably, he might do something else at the moment rather than getting drunk...," the other student finally replied in a low voice.

"What?" Nino chuckled amused. "Kissing?" he teased the older student.

Sho shot Nino with a death glare - at least he tried - but failed with the killing-part due to not being able to focus his gaze on his supposed-to-be victim at the moment.

"I - I’m going!" Sho finally spat out, obviously not wanting to pick up the conversation with Nino, and wherever that might lead to. He turned on his heel, reaching for the balcony door and pulled it open slightly. "Don't smoke again!" the student said once more before he eventually turned and entered the room again, getting out of Nino’s sight.

"…Killjoy…," Sho could hear Nino from outside before he closed the door.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

For some reason, it was hard for Sho to forget about what happened between him and Nino on Ohno’s balcony. The whole weekend, there was nothing else on his mind - well, except homework, of course - than that _kiss_ Nino had _attacked_ him with. Sho had tried to forget it as soon as he arrived home on Friday, but it was impossible and he ended up with a sleepless night. Why was it so damned irritating? Because it was a guy who kissed him? Because he didn’t expect it? No matter what it was, it was confusing as hell and Sho hated it. When his mother asked him on Sunday morning at breakfast if everything was alright, Sho considered for a second to ask her for an advice, but in the end didn't, not knowing how he should explain the situation to her.

Back at school the following week, Sho didn’t know how to react when he came face to face with Nino. He averted his gaze when they passed each other along the corridors. When Ohno invited Nino to sit with them at the cafeteria table another day, and Nino surprisingly accepted, Sho pretended to be busy with his lunch and didn’t even dare to look at the other sitting just about two meters away from him. Of course, they didn't talk.

A few days later, Sho was about to pick up Jun from his class to go shopping for new clothes in town, and he still hadn’t forgotten Nino’s kiss, but at least he managed to be more chilled about it. It had been nothing special. Just Nino teasing him with something unexpected. To irritate him. Which had worked. Probably, that was just Nino’s style - doing random stuff to random people to irritate them. Sho didn't know how many other people Nino had kissed just to confuse them... He didn't _want_ to know, but for some reason he secretly hoped it weren't _that_ many.

Dealing with that student might be a challenge, but somehow there was a level of intimacy that connected him with the other boy, Sho had to admit. He didn't know exactly where it came from but no matter what he tried, he couldn’t completely get rid of this strange _affection_ (he wasn’t even sure if that was the right word, but he lacked another fitting one) the boy brought out in him. He couldn’t bury his curiosity and interest, and kiss or not, teasing or not, Sho couldn’t help but want to get to know the boy better.

He realized this once more when he spotted the boy sitting at his desk when he came to get Jun that afternoon. Everyone else seemed to have gone home already, Jun was ready to leave too, and so Nino was the only one left. The boy was just sitting there, his chin bedded on his palms as he was staring at the blackboard in front of him, seemingly in thoughts. Sho noticed a white bandage that was wrapped around his wrist.

"Nino is still here?" Sho asked the obvious in a whispering voice when Jun jumped up in front of him with a bright smile.

"Ah, yeah, seems that a teacher wanted to talk to him later," the younger boy replied, turning a little to look at his classmate before he pulled Sho with him into the corridor. "Let’s go!"

"Did he do something?" Sho asked curiously, unable to let the topic slip yet.

"Nothing special," Jun quickly answered, sounding a bit annoyed. "Didn't do his homework or something like that… his usual stuff."

Sho frowned. "Did you see? He's injured..."

"That's nothing special either," his friend said, frowning. "Most likely he got into a fight yesterday or something like that."

"Is he a bully?"

Jun shook his head. "No, but let's say he can be provoking so some people probably don't really like him."

Sho stopped their walk. "Is _he_ being bullied?" he asked, feeling a strange concern starting to weigh on his chest.

"Not sure if you can call it like that," Jun, who had come to a halt too, said surprised, and seemed to consider the possibility, but again shook his head, even though a little less convinced this time. Then, he pulled at Sho’s elbow to get them to resume walking. "What's with that sudden interest in him, I don't get it. Did something happen?"

Sho’s heart skipped a beat when he - again - thought about the kiss.

"No. Nothing," he lied.

"Then you shouldn't pay so much attention to him or you'll get into trouble too sooner or later," his friend replied.

When Sho spotted a slight pout on Jun’s lips, he nudged his friend, offering him a smile before they hurried to catch the bus into the centre of the city.

\+ + +

Despite Jun's warning, Sho still couldn't _not_ pay attention to Nino. Instead, he caught himself developing an honestly slightly disturbing obsession with that boy that was now growing every day. Recently - as if Nino became visible to him only since their encounter - whenever the boy was close, Sho seemed to notice him right away, no matter how much Nino tried not to stand out. It was as if Sho had developed some kind of Nino-radar or something strange like that. It was ridiculous.

Sho himself didn't understand his interest in that boy either. It wasn't that he _liked_ him. Well, he didn't _dislike_ him either. The only thing he really disliked was Nino’s smoking and that he had been teasing him with strange nicknames. Ok, probably, this was a bit more complex. However, as he started trying hard to focus his confused feelings onto something to be able to handle them better, slowly but surely, Sho started wondering if he and Nino could become friends... well, sort of. Things might be a bit easier then, probably.

The problem was just that Nino didn't seem to be the type to befriend easily. Even if it was true that Nino and Ohno knew each other from earlier, it didn't mean that they were close friends. They had been closer during elementary school as it seemed, but if Sho believed Ohno's stories, Nino had always been a very quiet child, hard to get through, and once they entered middle school, he'd changed more and more into a loner.

While Nino seemed to have been a victim of bullying during middle school, here in high school, people mostly left him alone, even avoided him. Nino's tongue hadn't been poisonous from the start, Ohno once said, and Jun agreed that Nino only spoke when others talked to him.

Most of the time the boy seemed to have his nose buried in a book or his ears covered with headphones, or he was simply staring into nothing, spacing out, something that Sho already observed from Ohno, even if he couldn't help but feel a difference between Ohno's behaviour and Nino's. During those times, Nino’s eyes were hazy, his look directed into a far distance. His head must be up in the skies or trapped in a spiral of thoughts, Sho would never be able to find out. Sometimes, Nino seemed like he was living in a completely different world from all the other students and sometimes, Sho seriously wondered how that might feel.

During breaks, Nino only showed up in the cafeteria to grab a snack occasionally. Sho mostly spotted him alone, either outside hidden in the shadows of a large tree, or up on the rooftop where he used to smoke. When a teacher caught him, Nino used to run away and of course, ended up in detention again after his cigarettes had been confiscated.

If what Jun said about Nino getting into trouble and fights with other people was true, it didn't seem to happen on the school grounds. At least, Sho never witnessed the boy getting into a fist fight with fellow students or anything and nobody else seemed to have become witness of such a scene either. Nevertheless, whenever he came a bit closer to him, Nino had a new bruise or cut. It was strange...

Only a few times, Sho witnessed the younger student talking with someone in a friendly way. It was Aiba Masaki, a fellow basketball player from Sho's team. Tall guy, radiating smile, friendly to everyone – including Nino, apparently. Jun already had mentioned that Aiba seemed to know Nino in some way. Sho didn't know if they were friends, acquaintances, or if Aiba only tried to be nice to a putative outsider because he had a big heart, but it made him curious how those two might be connected. 

Nino and Aiba didn't really hang out together. Aiba, as the school's number one basketball star, was usually surrounded by a bunch of people, which Nino seemed to avoid. The boy seemed to prefer going his own way, as if he didn't need anyone in his life. Or at least, pretended to. Because if Sho wasn't completely mistaken, he was convinced that sometimes he could see sadness in Nino's eyes. Sadness and loneliness, that were sometimes so obvious, that Sho felt the urge to do something against it, personally.

So far, Sho held back, trying to ignore the strange attraction Nino had on him. But one day, he just couldn’t ignore it any longer and so, when he was walking along the corridors and spotted the younger student standing in front of a big board announcing some exam results, he saw it as a chance. First, Sho stopped shortly behind Nino, without the other noticing him, and curiously browsed through the list of names up on the board, trying to spot Nino’s. 

And there it was. 

Math seemed to be quite OK for Nino, true, he wasn’t in the top ten of the second year students, like Jun said, but he was in the upper middle field. He ranked pretty high in Japanese Literature. A few other subjects had resulted in the middle field too, apparently, and then there was one subject, which the student seemed to be at war with.

"You really suck in English," Sho said, his voice low enough to not be heard by everyone, but loud enough to make Nino realize that he was talking to him.

The student startled slightly, turned around and looked at Sho. He sighed, annoyed, when he recognized the other. "Go make fun of someone else, elite student," Nino grumbled.

"I'm not here to make fun of you," Sho said, his eyes still focused on the result board.

"What do you want then?" Nino huffed.

Finally, Sho dared to face the other boy. It made him a bit nervous. He shrugged, trying to act as nonchalant as possible. "Don't know… I could offer my help with that."

Nino frowned. "Why should I want you to help me?"

"Because I already learned that shit from year two and I'm the best in English here," the older student offered, a hint of pride in his voice.

"Not big-headed at all, are you?" Nino snorted.

"You want it or not?"

"Want what?"

"My help."

For a few seconds, Nino didn’t reply, and only stared at the other student in disbelief.

"You're serious?" he finally asked, and if Sho wasn’t mistaken, the annoyed undertone was gone.

"Until I change my mind," Sho replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He arched a challenging eyebrow, trying to hide his nervousness. "So?" Sho wondered if Nino might really consider his offer.

But then, the boy's look darkened and shortly after, he stepped a bit closer to Sho, passing him before he stopped behind him and whispered. "Stop joking and leave me alone, _Sho-chan_ , or I'll kiss you again."

Sho swallowed when he heard that and whirled around quickly. "You can't threaten me with that, Nino."

Slowly, Nino turned around. A mean smirk was adorning his lips. "So you'd actually like that?"

"I didn't say that," Sho murmured, his cheeks were now feeling like they were burning, and he prayed that he was not blushing as much as he feared.

"I didn't expect it," Nino replied in a low voice and after locking eyes with Sho for a last time, he turned, his hands buried in his pockets, and left.

Sho took a deep breath.

\+ + +

A few days later, the typical trio consisting of Sho, Jun and Ohno were chilling outside in the school yard, enjoying a really nice warm day, and waiting for the after school activities to start. Sho was part of the basketball team, Ohno participated in the arts club and Jun was one of the leading actors in the school’s theatre club. Right now, after having finished their lunch, Jun was reviewing a few lines of a new script, while Ohno seemed to be taking a nap and Sho was busy with... staring at Nino who was sitting far away at the other side of the yard in the shadows of a large tree and listening to music.

"Sho… do you have a crush on Ninomiya or something?" Jun suddenly asked, out of the blue.

"What?!" Sho snapped his head to his friend, honestly surprised. "Me? Having a crush?! On Nino!?" He laughed. "You must be kidding…"

"You seem to be very interested in him recently," Jun mumbled, turning the pages of his theatre script as he averted his eyes.

Sho chuckled again, trying to think about what to say next. He hadn’t spoken about Nino with his friends yet, and he was not even sure what exactly he should tell them. However, he wasn't having a _crush_ , he just wanted to become friends with the other boy. That's all.

"What makes you think so?" he asked Jun, curiously.

Jun frowned; somehow, he seemed to be pretty annoyed, or was Sho only imagining it?

"Whenever you spot him at school, you're staring at him."

"I am?" Sho wondered.

"You are," Ohno chimed in with a droopy voice as he slowly sat up and looked at Sho with sleepy eyes. Apparently, the student's nap was over.

"It's not a crush, so silly… he's just confusing me…," Sho murmured.

"Whatever, he's weird, so don’t waste your thoughts on him!" Jun said, slamming his script shut. Sho frowned at his friend, wondering about the strong reaction.

"Well... He's not _weird_ ," Ohno said, thoughtfully. "Let's say... he's a bit special."

"You know more about him, right, Satoshi?" Sho then asked, turning to his friend, and ignoring Jun's pout. He didn’t get what the other’s problem was, so for now he decided to put it aside.

Ohno tilted his head. "I'm sorry, since we're not that much in contact for a few years now, I don't think I can say that I know a lot about him... we kind of grew apart."

"Sho, seriously, you better not get too close to him," Jun repeated with a serious look on his face. "He might be a bad influence on you!"

"You really don’t like him, do you?" Sho snapped at his friend. "Maybe you're doing him an injustice! I think we should try to become friends with him."

"He’s weird! He's always injured, he's unfriendly and sarcastic, he's… he's not someone I want to see you together with, Sho! And I surely don't want to become his friend!" Jun made his point clear.

"Fine!" Sho huffed back. "I won't force you! Then I'll do it alone."

Jun took a deep breath but whatever was lying on the tip of his tongue, he couldn't spit it out. Instead, he took his stuff, hurriedly, jumped up, facing his back at his friends and stormed away without saying anything.

"Jun?! Jun!" Sho couldn't believe it. Was his friend offended now? "Satoshi, did I do something wrong?"

"No, I think you didn't", the older boy, who had just silently witnessed the scene, replied. "Just let him be, maybe he's a bit jealous because his best friend is suddenly more interested in someone else."

Sho sighed. Jealously, really? He didn't think about that for even a second! Well, probably, Ohno was right. Jun was Sho's best friend since childhood and it wasn't a secret that the boy admired Sho and took some pride in their friendship. Bringing Nino into the picture now was probably really upheaving for him. It was similar when Jun joined high school a year after Sho and found out that Sho had become friends with his classmate Ohno. However, Sho wasn't in the mood for friendship drama now. He never said, he would replace Jun with Nino, but he also didn't want to let his friends tell him who he could be friends with and who not.

Nino was different, yes. He was unconventional, opaque, and somewhat mysterious. He looked strong and weak at the same time. Sho didn’t know him well enough yet to know what’s going on, but Nino seemed to be fighting against something, somehow, and that was something to respect. Most likely, Nino wasn’t just a weirdo, like Jun labelled him. Sho was more and more convinced that there must be more to the boy. And he had pretty much made up his mind already. He wanted to find out more about Nino, no matter what.

That was the reason why Sho had offered his help to the student. And probably the reason why he actually didn't find that kiss at Ohno's party as disgusting as he might have expected a kiss with a guy to be, right? True, it had tasted like cigarettes and beer, which wasn't exactly a pleasant taste but disgust wasn't what he had felt when Nino "shut him up". No, if anything would describe it, it was something more like "confusion", probably even "excitement". But it had nothing to do with having a crush.

Sho sighed, resting his chin on top of his knees. His look wandered over the school yard again, finding Nino who was still sitting in the same spot as before. For a short moment, Sho wanted to stand up and walk over to him.

But it had nothing to do with having a crush…

\+ + +

"You're friends with Nino, aren't you, Aiba-kun?" Sho asked his team mate during practise, a few hours later.

"Huh?" Aiba, who was wiping his sweaty forehead, looking at Sho, wondering, who nodded to the upper row of the gym, where some girls had gathered to cheer for their favourite players, and Nino was leaning on the banister too, in a further corner. "Yeah, I am, why?"

"Does he come often to watch you play?" Sho continued curiously. "I never saw him here before."

"No, I often try to make him come and play with us, or at least watch us, but he always refuses," the taller guy replied. "It's just recently that he drops by watching, I guess he's bored..."

Sho frowned at those words. "Bored?" 

Aiba shrugged. "Well... I guess he just has nothing better to do."

Wondering, Sho let his gaze wander up to where Nino was standing again. If anything, he was pretty sure that Nino wasn't just _bored_ or did he misinterpret? Nino turned his head and Sho averted his look almost at the same moment. Did their eyes just meet?

Since Sho joined the basketball team when he entered high school, he had to admit that he had never paid much attention to who was watching them play. The team, especially since Aiba joined them in Sho's second year, was used to having some audience, usually consisted of a bunch of Aiba's fangirls cheering for them, sometimes some classmates, but up to now, Sho had never cared. But now, there was Nino, and the fact that the other was watching – even if he was probably watching Aiba more than him – made Sho seriously nervous and horribly aware of every movement he made. What the hell was that?

"Do you know that people talk about him? That they think, he's weird?" Sho continued questioning Aiba as they took a small break.

"Of course, I know about that," his team mate replied.

"But you're friends with him nonetheless?"

Aiba shrugged while reaching for his water bottle. "Yeah, why shouldn't I?"

"Don't you think that he’s weird?" Sho asked, Jun’s strange behaviour from before still not completely leaving his mind. "Not that I do…," the student quickly added. "Well… I don't know…"

"He's different," Aiba admitted. "But I don't care. I like him. We shouldn't judge people from other people's opinions, right?"

Sho felt his lips curling up into a smile at the warm feeling of being understood by someone. This was exactly what he was thinking. He had allowed Jun to unsettle his mind a bit, but deep inside, Sho agreed with Aiba, 100 %!

"Right!"

\+ + +

Just _how_ could he approach Nino, Sho wondered a few days later. Even if he decided on befriending the boy, Sho didn’t make any progress at all. After offering his help to teach him English, Sho didn’t really know what else he could tell Nino. Asking him to join their lunch table didn’t work any longer, even if Ohno invited him casually, and as long as Nino didn’t accept the initial offer of Sho’s English coaching, the older student would feel strange, even annoying, if he tried offering it again.

To be honest, with Ohno not really caring about Nino’s lone wolf attitude and Jun being immensely against Sho’s plan to befriend _the weirdo_ , Sho soon had run out of ideas and motivation. Thus, people might be able to imagine his surprise when one day after school - completely unexpected - Nino approached _him_. Well... kind of.

It was in the late afternoon already. Sho had decided to stay in school for a bit longer to do some research for homework in the library, and all of his friends and classmates had left already. Checking his watch, Sho started hurrying through the corridors, exited the school building and making a real sprint over the school yard to catch the next bus that was stopping nearby. However, Sho was still a distance from the school's gate when he saw the bus passing. He cursed.

Knowing that at this rate it was very unlikely for him to reach the bus stop in time, Sho wasn’t even sure if he should try running faster. In the end, he did, but sometimes bus drivers could be assholes and so, Sho wasn’t surprised when the bus's doors closed and the vehicle drove away just the second he reached the stop.

"Oh crap! Thank you very much!" the student yelled ironically after the bus with his last bit of energy before he put his hands on his knees.

Once he caught his breath, Sho checked the bus schedule again, just to make sure, but it was just as he expected. Great, with that, he would also miss the next train home and would have to wait for the first train of the rush hour, crowded and stuffed with dissatisfied adults riding their way home, packed like sardines in a can. Sho usually tried to avoid taking public transport during these times.

The student was about to start walking down the street - if he had to wait for the next bus, he could also walk to the train station, at least time would pass a bit faster than instead of waiting – when he suddenly heard the ringing of a bicycle bell coming from behind. The student quickly turned around, even more surprised to find Nino, stopping his bicycle right next to him.

"Yo," Nino simply said, lifting one hand, his hem slipping back a bit, revealing another bruise unintentionally.

"Hey," Sho replied, confused.

"Young Master going home by foot?" the other boy arched an eyebrow as he bent over, placing his elbow on his bicycle’s handle bar. "How come, don't you have a private carriage or something?"

Sho rolled his eyes. He had almost forgotten why he initially didn’t really want to befriend with the boy. He definitely didn’t miss the annoying comments and strange nicknames the other used to give him.

"Believe it or not, I'm going to school and getting home just like every other student," he explained.

"Where do you live, nearby?" Nino asked, and Sho wondered if it was real curiosity.

"No," he said. "Not too close. I missed the bus to the train station so I planned to go there by foot now."

"Hmmm… I see."

"You live nearby?" Sho asked, pointing at Nino’s bicycle.

"Well, not too far away," Nino simply replied.

"Right...," Sho slapped his forehead. How could he forget?! "Same neighbourhood as Ohno, right?"

Nino nodded.

"Nice…," Sho replied before their conversation died down again.

He started walking when he didn't know what else he could talk about to the other boy – cursing himself inwardly for his lack of ability, wasn't this a chance to get closer to him? He was honestly a little surprised when Nino started pedalling again, slowly though, just fast enough to be at the same pace as Sho, accompanying him. It made Sho nervous and he stopped after a few more steps.

"Is it the same way for you?" the student asked, insecurely, turning to the boy.

"Do you want me to give you a ride?" offered Nino to Sho’s sincere surprise, instead of replying.

"You are offering me a ride to the train station?!" Sho had to hear it again or he might think he was suffering from acoustic imaginations.

Nino shook his head slightly. "Home."

"It… it's quite a distance…," Sho said after digesting the first shock of Nino’s surprising offer. That guy was joking, wasn’t he? He just wanted to tease Sho again...

But Nino shrugged. "And? I have some extra time on hand." He sounded sincere.

Sho frowned at him, still being suspicious over the unexpected kindness of the younger boy. "Are you actually being nice or do you just do not have anything better to do than giving me a ride?"

"Make it the latter," the other pouted.

Of course, what else. Sho should have known not to ask.

"You could use your time for studying," he pouted too, resuming walking. Nino hopped onto his bicycle again too, letting it roll to catch up with Sho until he passed the other and came to a halt just in front of him, blocking his way.

"You could just shut up and hop on," Nino said, his eyebrows furrowed as he pointed at the carrier behind his seat. "How is it?"

Sho would be lying if he said his heart didn't jump a little in this second. So Nino was _really_ serious. And maybe, this was Sho's chance to get a step closer to become Nino's friend. So after considering his options for a moment – he could probably trust Nino enough that the boy wouldn’t kidnap him at least - the student finally decided.

"If you insist…," he murmured, trying to hide his happiness. He would use this chance, but he could play Nino's game too, hiding his real feelings and motives. Not so sure, if this would lead to success, but it would probably make things a bit easier to control for now, Sho assumed.

After Nino nodded in agreement, Sho hopped behind the boy onto the bicycle. He desperately tried to find something to hold on to when the younger student started pedalling; not really knowing where put his hands. In the end, Nino sighed heavily and reached back with one hand to grab Sho's and place it around his waist.

"Hold on to me properly or I'll drop you! And make sure to tell me the direction," Nino instructed in a sharp voice.

Shortly after, Sho found himself wrapping his arms around Nino, probably holding a bit tighter onto the boy than absolutely necessary, blushing slightly from the sudden closeness, and grateful that the other couldn’t see his face. Gladly, Nino didn't say anything about it and he also didn't push Sho's hands away.

The wind was blowing through Sho's hair when he peeped his head at the sides of Nino for a better view to show him the way. It was warm, even if the sun was already setting and the lights along the streets switched on one after another. Nino was fast and with Sho’s hints now and then to get the right directions, it actually didn’t take them as long to Sho’s place as he expected.

Of course, due to the extra weight, the ride had been exhausting for Nino, so it wasn’t surprising to find the student panting when they finally stopped in front of a big modern house in one of the chicest parts of the city. The house held two floors, there were balconies in front of the windows of the upper floor and when they approached the path up to the garage, people could look over a gate into the spacious and wonderfully built, neat garden, which was surrounding the house. It was filled with beautiful flowers, bushes and trees and there was even a little pond surrounded by large stones with a little fountain. The garage was huge and looked like it would be able to fit in two cars next to each other without any problem, and even if Sho didn’t tell the other, Nino knew that there _must_ be two fancy cars in it.

"OK wow," the boy said, impressed, as he was staring at the view in front of him – the house was even larger than Ohno’s. "That's… nice."

Sho, who had already climbed off the bicycle's carrier, stepped forward and rubbed his neck, trying to hide his embarrassment, and failed. Then, he approached the gate, which led into the garden, showing a way leading to the front door of the house.

"Uhm... Do you want to come in?" he asked, a bit shyly. He didn't want to admit it but his heart was pounding. He was nervous. "I'm sure my parents don't mind if a...," he wondered how to refer to Nino, pretty sure that it was too early yet to call them "friends". "Do you want to join for dinner maybe? You must be hungry."

"What?" Nino chuckled, his eyes still fixated on the fine house before he looked at his schoolmate. "Are you kidding me? I'm not going inside there, no way!"

"Why not?" Sho frowned.

Nino arched a critical eyebrow at the other boy. "Do I look like someone who fits in there? I know where my place is in society. I am _not_ going inside such a fancy house, forget it, Richboy."

Sho swallowed. He already had heard from Ohno that Nino came from poor background, but was it _that_ bad? And why would that mean that he couldn't come into his house? Sho didn’t like the tone that  
Nino used when talking about this. Nevertheless, the boy didn’t lose his good manners, feeling indebted to the other for sending him home.

"Don’t you want to get something to drink at least? This was quite a ride after all."

"No, thanks. I feel like even your expensive tap water would be wasted on me," Nino tried to joke. It was a very lame joke, in Sho’s opinion. "Well, I'm better on my way home now…"

Just when the boy wanted to hop onto his bicycle again, the older student reached out his hand, touching Nino’s arm.

When Nino looked at him, wondering, Sho stumbled slightly. "Uhm… thanks for the ride."

He didn’t expect a "You’re welcome" so it wasn’t a big deal when Nino didn’t reply in the normally polite manner. But Sho also didn’t expect what followed next. Nino suddenly seemed a bit embarrassed, and then, he turned to face Sho, as if he wanted to say something. Sho frowned slightly, wondering what it could be, when it took Nino a few more minutes to get the words he wanted to say out loud.

"Ah… Sakurai?" he started. "To be honest, there’s something I wanted to ask you."

"Hm?" Sho wondered. Was it connected to his home? To his family? To his money? He didn’t know what to expect, so when Nino finally spat it out, at first he couldn’t connect the boy’s request.

"Well… uhm…," Nino looked nervous, for some reason, something that Sho hadn’t seen before. Somehow, he had to say it, it was adorable. "As I thought, I guess, I might really need a bit of your help…," the younger boy said almost in a whisper, averting his eyes.

"My help?"

"With English I mean…," Nino clarified.

"Oh!" Now, Sho got it. He smirked crookedly. "Is that why you gave me the ride? You wanted to ask for my help?"

Nino furrowed his eyebrows and pouted slightly, taking a defensive posture. "Not particularly, I told you I had nothing better to do, so..."

Sure… if Nino wanted to make himself believe that, Sho should better leave it like that.

"You really don't want to come in now?" the student tried again, pointing at the house in his back. "We could talk about the details over a cup of tea."

Again, Nino shook his head, "I told you, no."

"If I remember correctly, Jun mentioned a test at the end of the week for your class," Sho said, hinting on the urgency that must be pressuring the other student.

"Yeah…but..."

"OK," Sho chuckled softly, giving up. "I won't force you. If you really don’t want to come in, shall I come over to your place after school tomorrow? Or do you prefer studying at school together?"

Nino seemed to honestly think about it, and in the end, he surprisingly replied, "That… would work, I guess. You coming over to my place, I mean..."

Sho smiled at the other student. "OK, So let's do that. I'll pick you up from your classroom once I finished."

"OK," Nino replied before they awkwardly said good-bye and the younger left.

\+ + +

Sho was leaning against the door frame of the back entrance of the classroom, watching students packing their stuff, chatting with each other and leaving one after another. Nino was sitting at his usual table, middle row, window place, and watching outside. Nobody talked to him, or said good-bye.

"Sakurai-senpai," a female student said when passing by, a wide smile on her face, her eyes shining. "What are you doing here? Matsumoto-kun has already gone home," she explained.

"Thank you, I'm waiting for someone else today," Sho replied with a polite smile.

"Ah, is that so?" the girl asked surprised, her eyes wandering back to the remaining students in her classroom, curiously, to check who Sho could refer to.

Sho followed her look and noticed that Nino had turned around in his seat, watching him and the girl. Sho smiled and lifted his hand to wave at him. Nino averted his eyes, not reacting to the greeting and instead pushed his remaining stuff into his backpack and got up to walk up to Sho. The girl standing by him looked at Nino, shocked, when she realized that he was approaching the other student. Hurriedly, she bid farewell to Sho and left the room, sending the two boys a last critical look. Admittedly, Sho thought, it must be uncommon for anyone, seeing the two of them together, since they seemed to have nothing in common, right? But Sho didn't care about what others might think about them.

"You're ready?" he offered a friendly smile.

"I didn't see that you're here already…," Nino murmured. "Did you wait for long?"

Sho slightly shook his head. "Didn't want to draw too much attention, sorry."

Nino shook his head in response before he exited the classroom and started walking along the corridors. "No, it's OK. So let's go."

Sho followed him. "By bus?"

"Bicycle," Nino replied. "You're riding with me again. It's not far."

"Oh, OK. Thanks," Sho answered, unable to prevent the happy smile forming on his face. His heart jumped a little. Maybe it was silly, but he was looking forward to their ride.

\+ + +

"Don't expect it to be clean, I didn't really have time for cleaning...," Nino said when he turned the keys of his apartment door and pushed it open to let Sho inside.

"No problem," Sho replied, bowing slightly before he entered. 

There was a pair of guest slippers ready that Nino gestured at and Sho quickly changed into them, before he followed the boy inside the apartment. As expected, it was a small place, but it was neat and nicely arranged and it gave off a comfortable feeling. At first sight, contrary to what Nino announced, everything looked pretty clean in the apartment. It was only with a closer look, like when Sho's gaze fell over the counter in the living room into the kitchen part, he could see things stacked in the sink, trash overflowing a trashcan. In one corner of the living room next to a small couch, which was facing an old television set, there was a huge basket of washed laundry, ready to be folded. Initially, Sho thought Nino had been talking about his bedroom, knowing himself how messy boys can be about their own rooms, but apparently, Nino was referring to the whole apartment and the other closed doors in the apartment seemingly implied that Nino didn't plan to show Sho his bedroom anyway.

"Take a seat," Nino gestured at the low table in the middle of the small living room before dropping his school bag and went around to the kitchen. "Something to drink? Water, tea?" the boy asked.

"Ah… tea please," Sho replied. "If it's not too inconvenient."

Nino just nodded and took a slightly rusty kettle, which he filled with water and placed on the gas stove. While the water started boiling, Nino reached to a box of tea on one of the upper shelves and prepared a small pot with tea leaves.

"Oh damned," he then cursed as he bent down to rummage through a small cupboard. "I forgot the snacks…"

Sho, who had been examining the boy curiously, the whole time – as if watching someone preparing tea was so thrilling, he scolded himself – quickly reached for his bag, pulling out a box and jumped up to hand it over to Nino who took it with a questioning look.

"I brought some home-made cookies from my mom," Sho explained in a low voice, a bit embarrassed. He wouldn't tell Nino that he had specially asked his mother to make some of her best cookies for his "new friend". But he had to admit, when he saw how Nino's eyes sparkled for a moment when he unboxed the cookies and placed them on a plate, he felt like it had been all worth it.

"They look delicious," Nino murmured. "…Tell her thanks," he added.

Sho smiled, taking the plate filled with cookies that Nino handed him to place on the table. The kettle whistled and Nino whirled around to switch off the heat and pull the kettle from the stove. He waited for a bit, while arranging the prepared tea pot and two cups on a small wooden tray and then poured the hot water into the small pot to bring everything around to the living room, where Sho was already munching one of the cookies. The student tried to hide it, finishing the cookie as fast as he could and brushing away a few crumbs before he pushed away his already arranged English notes to create some space for the tea. Nino settled at the opposite side of the table and then reached for his bag to pull out his own English stuff.

"Uhm… Where are your parents?" Sho asked as he watched the boy arranging his stuff.

"Out," Nino replied drily without looking at him.

"Work?"

"Hm."

Obviously, Nino didn't seem to be in a chatty mood, Sho thought, but this didn't satisfy his curiosity. "What do they do for a living, if I may ask?"

"You may not ask," the other boy simply replied.

"What? Why not?" Sho frowned, surprised by Nino's reply.

Nino looked up to lock eyes with Sho for a second and then reached to pour some tea from the pot into the two cups. "I want to study English now, please. Here, tea." He pushed one of the cups towards Sho, who bowed slightly. Before opening his notes, Nino reached for a cookie, trying it carefully. He munched a bit at the small bite, then took another bite and finished the cookie with the third. "Delicious…," he said, almost in a whisper and Sho smirked slightly.

"OK then let's start."

Time went by fast, once Sho and Nino had found the rhythm of questioning English problems, working them out together and then making Nino practice some examples by himself. Sho even offered to test Nino's vocabulary for a change. Even if Nino seemed to be frustrated at himself for his mistakes, all in all, Sho had to admit that the boy was much easier to handle than expected.

In between they talked a bit about school, about which subjects they liked and which they didn't. While Sho was surprised to find out that Nino was interested in most subjects and apparently just too lazy to put more effort in most of them to get better grades, Nino wasn't any less surprised to find out that Sho was not really interested in natural science subjects. This was the complete contrary to what Nino expected from the son of a family of doctors.

The cookies and tea didn't survive long. As if he never had eaten home-made cookies before, Nino ate so many of them that he started complaining about feeling sick, but Sho couldn't help but smile at it, looking forward to report to his mother how much his friend enjoyed her baking.

Soon, the afternoon turned to evening, it was getting dark outside and Nino started checking the time frequently. Sho didn't notice it in the beginning, but the boy seemed to become a bit nervous the later it got and this was making the older student slightly nervous too. Was he getting in the way of something?

"Probably, I should leave soon," Sho said when he followed Nino's gaze to the clock again.

"Ah… you don't want to have dinner here?" Nino asked, resuming the task of taking some more notes.

"Dinner?" the older one asked, surprised.

After scribbling a few more words, Nino lifted his look. "I thought I heard your stomach growling." Sho blushed, slightly embarrassed. "Want me to make you something for dinner?"

Sho gaped at him. "You can cook?!"

"Well, how do _you_ survive without cooking?" Nino arched an eyebrow. "Oh wait, I forgot, you must have a private cook, don't you?"

"Don't over exaggerate," Sho chuckled. "My mother is the one cooking."

"Must be nice though...," the younger replied before he got up and went into the kitchen, starting to search the fridge. 

He pulled out some boxed leftovers, murmuring something about being sorry that it was only something he cooked the previous day, but when Sho waved his hand and said it was fine, Nino put everything into a pan, added a bit water and started heating everything, with Sho curiously watching him from behind the counter.

"Aren't your parents coming home for dinner?" Sho asked a few minutes later when everything seemed ready and Nino started dividing the food on two plates that they took with them back to the living room table, due to the lack of a proper dining area.

"I told you they are out."

"But for so long?" this time, Sho checked the time. "Maybe I'm naïve but I thought mothers are supposed to make dinner for their families… and people eat together, if possible." Sure, Sho's father wasn't always home either, depending on his shifts in the hospital and he didn't know what’s the job of Nino's parents, but still… "It's rare that I tell my parents not to wait for me with dinner because I don't know when exactly I'll be back home… like today."

Nino chuckled. "You've got a very old-fashioned way of thinking, I suppose, Mr. Richboy."

Sho pouted and averted his eyes. "Don't call me like that…" They started eating. "Thanks for the meal!"

"But you are, aren't you?" Nino wanted to confirm.

"Maybe my parents are rich, but I'm not."

Nino snorted. "I bet your pocket money is 10 times higher than average."

"Actually, no," Sho said quickly, wanting to clarify whatever misunderstanding could pop up. "It's maybe a bit higher than average but the fact is my parents are saving money for when I'll attend university."

"University?" Nino tried some of his food, and seemed satisfied with the taste. "That's nice. What are you going to study?"

The meal was really delicious, Sho thought, pleasantly surprised by the other boy's cooking skills. "… Medicine I guess?"

"You don't sound so convinced, do you?" Of course, Nino was smart enough to pick up the hint of insecurity in Sho's voice. Sho wasn't even surprised about it anymore.

"Well…," he started, wondering how much he should tell Nino. For now, he decided just to state the facts. "My whole family consists of doctors. My father owns a hospital. My mother was a doctor before she got married and became pregnant with my big sister. My sister worked as a nurse before _she_ got married. My brother is studying Medicine… Of course I'm going to study Medicine too."

"…Of course," Nino repeated, lifting a sceptical eyebrow.

Sho swallowed another bite. Probably, Nino already knew that even if Sho's path seemed to be carved into stone, he wasn't as pleased about it as people might expect him to be. However, he didn't ask further and so, Sho didn't say anything more either.

"What about you?" the older student asked instead, looking at Nino, curiously.

"Me?" the other asked, not lifting his gaze from dinner.

"Yeah, what are you going to study after school?"

"I'm not going to university," Nino slightly shook his head.

"What? Why not?" Sho asked, surprised. "I mean, yeah, your English sucks but your other grades aren't that bad, and I think if you just study a bit harder from now till graduation you will have no problem getting accepted at a university –"

Nino stopped eating, letting his chopsticks drop. "You probably think it's easy for everyone, Sakurai," he said, his voice sounding slightly bitter.

"Ah… no, I mean… I just…," Sho immediately understood that he touched a sensible topic here. He didn't really know how to react, so offering help seemed to be the safest option from his perspective. "Do you want me to help with some other subjects too, maybe?"

"Sakurai," Nino replied, sighing deeply. "I'm not planning on going to university. So my grades don't matter and they are of no concern to you. Except English. Because I really suck at it and I… I just wanted to fix that…"

If grades didn't matter in Nino's future, why would he bother to improve his English in first place, Sho wondered, frowning. "What are you planning to do instead?"

Nino shrugged. "Don't know… find a reasonable job, earn some money…"

"It might be a waste if you didn't try to get into university at least, don't you think so too?" Sho chimed in. "Which subjects interest you?"

"I'm not interested in anything," Nino said in a low voice.

"That's not true," Sho objected, remembering the talk between them just a few hours ago. Apparently, Nino was interested in a lot of things, Literature, Music, History… Then suddenly, something clicked in Sho's mind. "If it's about the money, you can always try to apply for scholarship but for that, your grades need to be better, so as I thought, I can help you if you want-"

"I said stop that!" Nino suddenly raised his voice. "Just because for some rich boy like you it's natural to attend university after graduation it doesn't mean that everyone has to follow that path! Stop meddling with me! What is this about, are you looking down on me? Because I'm poor? Because I don't have a nice house like you do? Because my mother doesn't cook dinner for me? You assume I can't afford university just by looking at me and my home, no? But you know what? Maybe I just don't _want_ to go to university!"

Sho couldn't help but gape at the other, surprised at the sudden outburst. It was a first to hear Nino speaking so much at once and hearing the hurt tone of his voice, Sho realized immediately, that he had gone too far. "Sorry, Nino, I –," he tried to move backwards, but apparently, it was too late.

"Get out of here!" Nino said, his eyes glued onto the living room table. Shit, he really seemed to be offended…

"Nino…"

The boy finally looked up, and glared at Sho with a dark look. "I mean it, take your stuff and get out of here!"

"What about… English?" Sho asked in a low voice. They hadn't finished yet… so if they weren't going to continue after dinner, he at least wanted to try make another appointment for continuing studies.

"I don't need your help!" Nino exploded, angrily.

"OK," Sho said after hesitating for a minute. This wouldn't lead him anywhere, he concluded. "OK, I get it. I'm leaving. I'm sorry, Nino."

The student packed his English stuff and his mother’s empty cookie box in silence. He didn't touch the dinner anymore and stood up, not even daring to ask Nino where the next bus stop would be. So, after murmuring good bye, Sho left behind an angry Nino, and left the apartment, hoping that he didn't screw up completely and that with a new day coming, they would be able to make up.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

They didn't make up for three days.

First, Sho had felt horribly guilty. After realizing that he had stepped into grounds that were definitely too deep to talk about with Nino at their current level of friendship (if you could even call it like that), he had wished to be able to turn back time and not talk about Nino’s future. The boy was right, it wasn’t Sho’s concern and he had no right to talk to him as if he knew him forever and would be allowed to go against Nino’s plans. He had messed up.

Then, Sho became angry at Nino, his mind telling him that he did nothing wrong, that he said nothing wrong and that he was just worried about the boy wasting his potential. Because despite having the image of a troublemaker, Sho was convinced that Nino wasn’t dumb. He was smarter than he let show and he must know exactly that Sho only meant well when he tried to encourage him to aim for university. If Nino didn’t want his help, yeah, he couldn’t force it on him. But there was no reason for the boy to yell at him and to throw him out of his apartment when Sho came over to _help_ him.

The next stage of dealing with the fight with Nino was that Sho started worrying about the other. His heart had already forgiven Nino for the harsh way he ended their studying session and what was left now was the question - Why? Why did Nino react that much to what Sho said? Why had he felt so offended that he couldn’t handle it any longer and thought that kicking out Sho was the only way for him? And why, if he apparently didn’t care about his grades, did he finally accept Sho’s offer for helping him to improve his English? There must be a reason behind it, Sho thought, and he was eager to find out more.

Though, when he came to think about it, considering that Nino hadn’t even looked at him from afar for the past three days, Sho doubted that the boy would allow him to ask deeper questions about anything. If they would ever be talking again. And who could he ask about something like that? Probably nobody knew Nino well enough to know what was going on... So in the end, Sho became depressed.

"You look so down, Sho, what happened?" Ohno - whose seat was one row in front of Sho - asked when he turned around and placed his elbows on his friend’s desk, just like the boy himself.

They were still waiting for the teacher for afternoon classes and Sho had been completely out of it, when he heard his friend’s worried question. After the initial surprise of Ohno actually asking Sho about something like that - which was pretty seldom - the student tried to smile slightly. It didn’t feel like a smile.

"Nothing…," he murmured, not really wanting anyone else to hear.

"Come on," Ohno slightly tilted his head. "I'm not blind and I’m sick of your strange mood swings. So tell me."

"…I had a fight," Sho admitted, letting his hands drop onto the top of his desk, his eyes glued onto his fingers.

"With Jun? I thought you two are fine again," the other wondered.

"Ah no… we are, we are fine," Sho waved his hand to dismiss Ohno’s assumption.

At least for now, Sho thought, remembering how he and Jun had made up two days ago with Jun apologizing to Sho for trying to dictate who he should be friends with and Sho promising Jun that no matter what, he would never forget his other friends, especially not his best friend. Jun was happy with that promise and so he joined Sho and Ohno during lunch break again, more or less being his usual self. Though Sho couldn’t help but suspect that the lack of contact between him and Nino was what made Jun quite happy, even if they didn’t talk about anything yet. Nino has somehow become a taboo topic in front of Jun. Just to be on the safe side.

"…Nino?" Ohno asked in a low voice and Sho looked at him in surprise before letting out a deep sigh.

Bingo. Nino had also been kind of a non-topic between him and Ohno but that was more to blame on their general lack of communication and the unnecessity of talking about certain stuff. With Ohno, things were easy. Don’t wanna talk about something? You don’t have to. Considering that, it was rather surprising that Ohno didn’t give up now and even started the Nino-topic.

"Yeah… somehow. He got pretty angry at me…," Sho whined.

"About what?"

"…About some school related stuff."

Ohno nodded slowly probably considering if he should ask his friend further or not. "I see…"

It was Sho then who couldn’t get out of his skin and finally leaned a bit forward, giving in to his curiosity since thinking alone didn’t bring him anywhere in this case. "Satoshi, what do you know about Nino's parents?"

"His parents?" the other student lifted his eyebrows.

"When I visited him-"

"Wait," Ohno stopped him, confused. "You _visited_ him?! Seriously?!"

Sho continued, ignoring his friend’s surprise. "Well...for helping him with English studies, I visited him and his parents weren't home, not even in the evening. There was a pile of washed clothes in the living room, ready to get folded, the kitchen was a mess… he made dinner for us using leftovers from a meal that he seemed to have cooked himself-"

"He made _dinner_ for you?" Ohno - as untypical as it was for him - cut his friend again.

"And when I asked him where his parents are, he simply said, they were out," Sho finished.

Ohno gaped at him before he found his composure again. "OK, fact aside that I have never heard of Nino cooking dinner for anyone or even letting someone into his apartment since we graduated from elementary school... To answer your question, Nino doesn't have a father," the student explained.

"What?" Sho looked at him, puzzled.

"Well, obviously, biologically, he has, but no-one knows what happened to him," Ohno continued, lowering his voice. "When we were in elementary school, it seemed that one night, his father left the family and never came back. I remember it was a huge topic in the neighbourhood for quite a while... I felt sorry for him."

His eyebrows furrowed, Sho looked at his friend, trying to process what the other just told him. "That's horrible... What about his mother?"

Ohno shrugged slightly. "I can only repeat what my mother and her friends are gossiping, so I don't know if it's true. She seems to be a waitress in a family diner and when she's not on duty, it’s said she spends pretty much all of her spare time in pachinko halls or bars. She seems to be drunk quite often..."

"So he's basically home alone all the time?"

"Well, or at school..."

Sho swallowed hard. Now it all made sense. Why nobody had been home, the unfolded laundry, the uncleaned kitchen... Nino’s apartment had been as clean as a 16 year old high school student would possibly be able to keep it clean during school week, without any help from his mother which - if the rumours were true - he surely didn’t get any. It made sense now why the boy was used to cooking for himself or why he was _not_ used to homemade cookies. Also his nervous checking of the time when it became later was understandable now too. Nino had probably been waiting for his mother to return home after her working shift... Sho sighed once more, even deeper than before.

"Do they have money problems?" he asked after running through the conversation with Nino in his head once again.

"…I don't know. Maybe... Probably."

Nino’s outburst about Sho assuming he was poor... it made so much more sense now. It was probably true. And Nino was probably ashamed of it and didn’t want to be pitied. Exactly what Sho might have implied with his words during their talk. Crap.

Was Nino right? Was Sho looking down on him? It's true, he felt sorry for him. But it didn't mean he was looking down on him, right? At least, that wasn't his intention. Not at all! If anything, he would like to help in whatever way possible. But he doubted that someone like Nino would allow that to happen. He just didn’t seem to be the type who would accept help... it has been a surprise already that he had accepted Sho’s offer to help with English after all...

Despite not having any real good idea on how he could support Nino, Sho quickly decided that he didn’t want the progress he had made with Nino go to waste. True, they had a fight and it was most likely that Nino considered their relationship back to zero, like it was when the two boys met in the baseball field. But Sho could be stubborn too and he hadn’t given up on Nino. He still wanted to help him. Still wanted to be his friend. Wanted to be with him...

After the next basketball practise, Sho asked his teammate Aiba for Nino's phone number. He almost expected the boy not to have any - nothing about Nino would surprise him anymore - but luckily, Aiba told him that Nino indeed was using a phone ("One of those old things that you can flip open, remember?") and he willingly gave Sho Nino’s number.

It took Sho almost until midnight before he found the right wording for an apology which would contain all of his most sincere feelings. He then ended up retyping the actual message at least five times before he finally sent it, nervously. He was saying how sorry he was for assuming things that he couldn’t know, that he didn’t want to cross a line that Nino wouldn’t let him and that it was his real intention to help Nino - even if it was only with his English skills - and to become his friend. Hopefully, his words would reach Nino...

\+ + +

Sho didn’t know if Nino actually believed him or if he just decided to give in so that he could profit from Sho’s offer to continue English lessons (after all, a test was drawing close). Whatever the reason was, the next day after classes, Nino was indeed waiting on the school’s roof top to meet Sho, like Sho had begged him in his message from the previous night.

Since Nino had not replied to Sho’s message in any way, the older student was honestly surprised when he spotted Nino sitting there on the ground, his back leaning against the staircase’s wall, his ears covered with headphones and his eyes closed. Sho’s heart started pounding dangerously fast when he approached the student, slowly, not wanting to disturb him. When he settled right next to him, and Nino still didn’t seem to notice him, he used his chance to take a closer look at the boy.

His headphones seemed to be from an expensive brand, but they were a very old model, used and slightly damaged all over, looking as if they were in use for years. Nino’s lips - Sho’s heart skipped a beat when he looked at them and was powerless against the flash of memory of their kiss on Ohno’s balcony - were slightly parted. They looked dry and the one corner of Nino’s lips looked like there was a cut. The wound was already healing but still... When Sho inspected Nino’s face even closer, he could see that there was a large bruise, slowly but surely turning blue, covering half of his face, reaching from his mouth up to his slightly swollen cheek, where a small band-aid was stuck. His eye was surrounded by a dark blue shadow. Sho cringed. That looked definitely painful... where did Nino get those bruises from?

Suddenly, Nino opened his eyes and Sho backed off. First, Nino’s eyes looked hazy, he looked as if he wasn’t in this world right now, but then, he focused and the boy backed off too a little when he spotted Sho being so close to him.

"Fuck, couldn’t you approach me like every normal person?!" Nino cursed, pulling his headphones down around his neck. He took a deep breath. "You... surprised me!"

"Sorry," Sho murmured, not allowing his amusement over Nino’s reaction to show. He would risk nothing that might push the other away, after all. "I didn’t want to disturb you. What were you listening to?"

"...Convergence by Thirty Seconds to Mars," Nino murmured before he went back into position. 

For the next few seconds, nobody said anything. Honestly, Sho didn’t really know how to start. Should he repeat his apology again? Should he just talk about English and ask Nino when he would be ready for a new meet-up? Whatever words Sho had prepared to say to Nino, in the end, something completely else left his lips.

"What happened to your face?" Sho asked without thinking further, probably the question he really was most interested to ask at this very moment.

"Nothing," Nino replied, drily.

Sho suppressed a sigh. "Did you get into a fight?"

"Probably," the other boy shrugged. He obviously didn’t want to give any more details about it.

"Nino. You have a blue eye, if you didn't run into a street lamp; I assume you got into a fight," Sho said, trying to not sound as worried as he really was.

"Then you're probably right, Detective." Nino tried to smirk, but his lip seemed to hurt so he cringed and stopped halfway.

"What happened?" Sho repeated, seriously.

Nino averted his eyes and pouted, stubbornly. "Forget it, I'm not going to tell you."

"When did that happen?" Sho continued. Yes, he could be stubborn too. "Let me see that bruise..." He slipped a bit closer, reaching his hands up to Nino’s face.

"Are you crazy?!" the boy yelled and tried to back off but behind him was a wall and so there was no escape and in the end, Sho could touch Nino’s face, carefully. "Hands off!"

"Does it hurt?" Sho asked with a frown, even if he knew the answer. In fact, he was more trying to examine the injury closer, using some tips his parents gave him when it came to first aid treatment.

"…I said… hands off...," Nino repeated, but this time in a lower voice, until he gave up on trying to escape from Sho. "Don't touch me…"

"It looks like it hurts," the older student concluded, a strict look on his face.

"Of course it hurts... you don’t need to be an aspiring doctor to tell that much," Nino murmured.

"And you look sad!" Sho added.

Nino snorted, rolling his eyes. "Well, can you believe it?! Getting beaten up isn't exactly fun."

"I suppose…," Sho sighed, sinking back into his position next to Nino.

They were now both leaning their backs against the wall and lifted their faces to look at the blue filled with various shaped clouds wandering over the slowly darkening afternoon sky. There was silence again.

"…Have you ever experienced it?" Nino finally broke it, a few minutes later.

"Getting hit by someone?" Sho asked before he shook his head. "Never..."

Nino chuckled but for some reason it sounded fake. "Surprises me, considering what an annoying jerk you can be."

"There are ways other than violence to clear a fight, Nino," Sho said, ignoring the offence. He could feel Nino’s look on him, but he didn’t dare to dart his eyes at the boy, too scared to find disgust, amusement or even rejection in the boy’s face.

"Just for the records," Nino replied after a moment of hesitation and Sho finally looked at him, surprised to find only sadness in Nino’s expression. " _I_ wasn't the one who hit someone." Nino sounded desperate, somehow, his voice weak, about to break. "I-I did nothing at all…"

So Nino wasn’t the one starting the fight? For some reason, Sho’s heart felt a bit lighter now. Then he frowned, worried. "Didn't you defend yourself?" 

He would have bet that Nino was used to fights, judging from his bruises he often showed (well, tried to hide sometimes but were visible to Sho since the day they met). He didn’t expect this rather weak, almost broken Nino that suddenly claimed that he hadn’t been the one searching a fight and surprisingly seemed to open up in front of him right now.

"If I had, I wouldn't have a blue eye now," Nino pouted.

"Why didn't you?"

The younger man pursed his lips, slightly, as much as they allowed him to do before making him cringe from pain. "I have my reasons."

For a few seconds, Sho just stared at Nino, fighting the urge to fling his arms around the boy and to pull him into a hug.

"You know what, Nino?"

"Hm?"

"I think you're not as bad a guy as you try to make others believe," Sho said frankly, offering a small smile. He felt like he was carrying his heart on his tongue, and he was a little nervous saying those words, but he honestly meant them.

"…You don't know me," Nino stated and the other student couldn’t even deny that fact.

"Maybe I want to get to know you," Sho replied, honestly, looking at Nino.

"You're weird...," Nino replied and if Sho wasn’t suffering from hallucinations, he’d say that he spotted a tiny smile on Nino’s face.

"So are you," Sho countered. "Maybe we have more in common than we think."

They were locking eyes for a few seconds and Sho could almost swear that there was some kind of tension in the air between them. Not an unpleasant tension, rather an attraction that made his heart beat faster and his thoughts run wild. He wondered if Nino felt the same at that very moment. A part of him hoped it would be the case. Their faces were close, so close, and if Sho would move forward just a tiny little bit...

In the end, Nino was the first one to look away again and Sho blushed when he realized what he had just said - and thought. He cleared his throat.

"Uhm... want me to get some ice for your bruises or something?" the student then offered.

Nino shook his head, heavily. "It's fine, I'm used to it."

"Sure?"

"Yes…"

"And you really don't want to talk about what happened?" Sho tried once more.

Silence, after Nino shook his head again. Sho didn’t believe it. There was surely something weighting on Nino’s heart that the boy wanted to talk about but for now, those weights were invisible, still. So instead of forcing the other into a reply, Sho finally suggested something else.

"Is there anything I can do for you?"

Nino turned at him, confused, his eyes looking desperate. "Do for me?"

Sho blushed slightly. "Uhm... well... just... if there is anything I can do to make you feel better..."

Nino hesitated for a bit, Sho could see how the boy was thinking, trying to figure out how to formulate his reply. "Just… can you shut up and stay for a while? Here, with me, I mean…"

"Well… If you want?" Sho shrugged, surprised by the request.

So they stayed for a bit longer, next to each other, looking at the sky, without saying anything for minutes. Sho didn’t know what to say and Nino probably didn’t want to talk. It was a somewhat peaceful moment, if Sho wouldn’t still feel this nervousness, this confusion over the other boy’s wish, over so many things concerning Nino. Maybe there would be a chance for them to become closer after all, even if Sho still didn’t know how that would work, but he knew he was willing to try a lot of things for Nino’s sake.

"Sakurai?"

"Hm?" Sho looked at the other boy, shocked about their suddenly interrupted silence as well as being addressed directly without hearing the usual sarcasm throbbing from Nino’s voice.

"Thanks," Nino whispered and if that wasn’t enough to make Sho breathless, Nino leaning his head slightly against Sho’s shoulder definitely made the older lose his composure.

Feeling the slight weight against him, the student stared at the other in disbelief. It was the first time that he ever heard Nino saying "Thanks" (not counting the one time he let Sho convey his thanks for the cookies to his mother). It was surprising, even confusing, and it did some strange things to Sho's heart. He wasn't able to speak a word after that, and so he just hummed in a low voice and kept silent as the two of them continued spending the next few hours up there on the school’s rooftop, doing nothing but being there, together.

\+ + +

Afterwards, things between Sho and Nino became pretty good. Sho would even call them friends by the status they reached just a few days later. Nino still wouldn’t tell Sho who was the responsible for his bruised face (since Sho threatened to have a serious word with that person, probably Nino was worried that Sho would be beaten up too or something) but they almost immediately arranged another meeting to study English. Once they met in a café near school, in which Sho treated Nino to a sundae. At first, Nino didn’t want to accept it. He even almost became angry at Sho, saying that he could afford some stupid ice cream by himself, but Sho insisted that he should just take it as a "sign of their friendship" - which Nino found embarrassing and stupid. Nino had grumbled but accepted in the end nevertheless.

Some other times, even after the English test, which turned out quite well for Nino by the way, they met in Nino’s apartment. All those times, Sho never met Nino’s mother, who seemed to live up to her name and not care much about her son or his guests, but one afternoon, surprisingly, she came home while Sho was still there, studying with Nino.

Surprised by the sound of keys rustling at the entrance door, Nino stood up from the living room table and walked into the small corridor to open the door. Sho heard a high-pitched voice that for some reason he immediately disliked, probably due to the fake sound, when a woman spoke.

"I’m back, surprise! Oh you have a guest?" she added. Probably, she saw Sho’s shoes in the entrance area.

"Mom... you’re early," Nino replied, sounding a bit nervous. "I thought you’re on late shift today? And I told you that someone from school would come over, why are you surprised?"

The woman giggled childishly and then, Sho could hear a crash, followed by an "Ooops" and a "Watch out" from Nino. Sho wasn’t sure if he was imagining things because of the rumours Ohno told him about Nino’s mother, but he seriously wondered if the woman was drunk. Early, considering that it was only about 6 pm.

Just a few seconds later, Nino guided the woman into the living room. She looked just like Nino, Sho thought immediately when he saw her face. The same eyes, the same small nose, the same beautiful thin lips. Her hair was light brown though - bleached, most likely - and fell over her shoulder in curls. She was wearing make+up to hide her age, so it was hard to guess how old she really was, and a simple golden necklace with a ring as a pendant around her neck. Her yellow blouse exposed a bit too much, same for her navy blue-white striped skirt that she was wearing over nude coloured tights.

"I’ll get you some water, Mom," Nino murmured and helped his mother to sit down at the living room table.

The boy sent a quick apologetic look towards Sho who just nodded slightly, unsure about how to react to the whole situation. Then, he stood up again and went into the kitchen to fill a glass with fresh water that he brought to his mother, settling down next to her.

"Nice to meet you, pretty boy," Nino’s mother said to Sho with a smile on her face as she placed her elbows on the low table. "What’s your name?"

"Sakurai Sho. Nice to meet you," the boy replied, lowering his head politely. "I’m sorry for barging into your home... I’m a friend of Nino..."

"Such a polite boy is a friend of my useless son," the woman chuckled in her high-pitched voice, irritating Sho who cringed at the word "useless" that she used to describe Nino. "Sorry if I’m laughing, it’s just..." Suddenly, she frowned. "Wait... Sakurai... doesn’t that ring a bell? Perhaps... are you related to the Sakurai hospital?"

Sho nodded. "Yes, my father is the director of the hospital."

"I knew it!" Nino’s mother cheered, applauding herself before she turned to her son with a slightly disgusted look. "Oh my... Kazunari, what did you do to make such a highborn student befriend you, blackmail him?"

Sho threw a quick look towards Nino, whose face had completely sunken. When the woman started poking her son at his side, Nino begged her in a low voice to stop, just to receive an even heavier poke. Sho took a deep breath.

"No! He didn’t do anything!" he said, determined.

"Hah...," the woman turned to face Sho again. At least, she stopped poking Nino now. "So what business might a rich boy like you have with my son then?" she asked, eyeing Sho suspiciously. Her face turned into an evil grin as she leaned a bit further over the table, coming close enough to Sho that he now could smell a slight scent of alcohol coming from her breath. "Don’t tell me he’s trying to make you fall for him so that you pull him out of his poor life? Away from me? Say, are you interested in small good-for-nothing boys like him, Sakurai-kun?"

"Mom, please, would you stop talking such stuff?" Nino hissed, putting his hands on his mother’s shoulder to pull her back. "Sakurai, I’m sorry, don’t listen to her..."

Sho didn’t care about what that woman said. In his eyes she was a horrible person, the rumours he heard about her, the suspicion he had almost confirmed by himself that she didn’t care about her son... and now she was talking about Nino like he was an illness, it made Sho feel like throwing up.

"In fact, I just happened to offer to help him with his English," he said in a calm voice. The last thing he wanted to do was to make the woman angry or discuss anything with her.

"Why would my son need your help with English?" Nino’s mother chuckled.

"I told you I’m bad in English," Nino explained shortly.

"Who cares?" she arched an eyebrow, looking at her son. "You won’t go to university anyway, right? And who needs English in Japan? You don’t need English, Kazunari. It’s a waste of time to study it."

Sho swallowed. He didn't know if she meant it, but for some reason the woman’s intonation had sounded like it was also a waste of time for Nino to spend time with Sho and that hurt. And what was that about Nino and university? What did she mean? Was it Nino’s own choice not to go there, like he tried to make Sho believe, or was it something _she_ decided for her son?

"He’s actually quite good!" Sho chimed in. "Once I explained some of the basics to him he caught up really fast, I think it’s not a waste of time for him to deepen his knowledge. English can be very useful nowadays, depending on what job Nino might choose!"

The woman tsked, rolling her eyes at her son. "So the teachers were not enough to get a bit English into my useless son’s brain?" She lifted her hand and Nino seemed to back off a little before she ruffled through his pitch black hair, messing it up even more than it usually was. "It needs a rich boy to make you understand this crap? Awesome... Great, Kazunari, congratulations." Her voice was dripping from sarcasm and Sho bitterly realized from whom Nino seemed to have inherited this.

"Please Mom, stop that... we’ve already finished, OK? Sorry Sakurai but... take your stuff and come, please," Nino finally requested, obviously having enough of his mother’s talk in front of the other student.

The boy stood up and waited for Sho, who hurriedly packed his bag and followed Nino. Polite as he was brought up, he bowed in front of the woman to bid her farewell (even if somehow he felt terrified by the thought of leaving Nino alone with her). Nino hurried into the corridor, Sho following him.

"Where are you going?" they could hear Nino’s mother yelling from the living room while they were putting on their shoes.

"I’m going to bring Sakurai-kun to the bus-stop," Nino replied, loud enough for her to hear.

"Take down the trash with you, will you?"

Nino sighed but then he jumped up and ran into the kitchen to grab two plastic bags. "...Sure."

"Did you cook already?" the woman asked, her voice lower than her chatty sing-song voice from before.

"No...," Nino hesitated. "Since we were studying and I thought you would come later..."

"Cook something when you’re back. Something _good_ this time!" The woman sighed deeply.

"Yes..."

"Now hurry! And bring some cigarettes with you, you stole my last package after all…"

"I didn't _steal_ it," Nino tried to argue, but the woman just make a "Shoo" noise and the boy seemed to give up. "Yes," he said and came back to the entrance area quickly, pushing the door open and showing Sho the way outside.

They more or less rushed downstairs, Nino not even bothering to wait for the elevator he had called to their floor. Sho didn’t say anything, following his friend in silence, but he could feel the other boy’s tension. Outside, Nino quickly deposited the trash at the designated area and then, they went to the nearby bus-stop. Not sure if it was their luck or bad luck, Sho noticed that the bus must have left just a few minutes before, the next one would be following in another few. Enough for him, to say a few things to Nino, that was if the boy would stay and wait with him and not run back immediately. Apparently, Nino had calculated with waiting for the bus together with Sho, but he looked a bit nervous. For a moment, they exchanged a look but Nino quickly averted his eyes. Maybe he wanted to say something, however, the boy stood silent and so, Sho took the chance.

"Your mother said some very mean things up there... is she always like that?" Sho started, not completely sure where this was heading. However, they _had_ to talk about this, he was convinced about that.

"I’m sorry you had to witness that," Nino started. "I told her not to come home early today, usually she never comes home early anyway, she surely was just curious about you and then she...," he paused, taking a breath. "I’m sorry she said such strange things to you..."

Sho shook his head, understanding. "Don’t worry, I don’t mind what she said. I just want to tell you that you shouldn’t believe her." Sho came a step closer, lifting his hand to put it onto Nino’s arm. They locked eyes. "You’re not a good-for-nothing. You’re not _useless_ , what a terrible thing for a parent to tell their son!"

Nino’s eyes seemed to become watery, when he pursed his lips and averted his look again. "Well, I guess, she must be right..."

"No, she’s wrong!" Sho slightly shook his friend. "Listen, Nino, you’re a precious person like everybody else and if she as a mother can’t see that, she’s disqualified as a parent."

Desperate, Nino sighed. "Maybe I’m disqualified as a son and that’s why -"

"No. Nino, no, stop that, that’s crap!" the other boy said, determined. "Look at me, Nino!" The younger boy looked into Sho’s eyes again and he looked so weak that Sho couldn’t help but pull him into a hug. Nino didn’t move, so Sho pressed him even closer, his heart pounding, overflowing from the anger he felt towards Nino’s mother, as well as the affection he felt for the boy in his arms. It hurt, to see him hurt. So much. "Children deserve to be loved by their parents, no matter what. Just... don’t believe the shit she’s talking, promise me."

After a second of hesitation, Sho could feel how Nino lifted his arms and finally put them onto Sho’s back, returning the hug, even if only slightly and hesitating. Sho’s heart was about to burst. "Promise, Nino...," he whispered.

"I’ll try...," Nino replied, murmuring into Sho’s embrace.

"OK...," Sho sighed. He probably had to be satisfied with this for now. He knew that he might have to talk to Nino about this whole topic again.

They parted, both acting a bit strange after the hug, embarrassed, however, Nino still stayed, waiting together with Sho without saying a further word, until the next bus finally arrived. When Sho was about to hop onto the bus, he turned to Nino again.

"One last thing," he started.

"Hm?" Nino looked at him, wondering.

"Whenever you need something... you can come to me, OK?" Sho said, seriously. "Call me whenever you need me. I mean it!"

Even when the bus driver hurried Sho to finally get on, and pushed a button to close the door, Sho didn’t avert his eyes from Nino, who was just standing there, looking at Sho. Just when the bus started driving, Nino seemed to say something. Sho wasn’t sure if he interpreted it correctly, he had never been really good at lip reading, but he hoped he got Nino’s message correctly.

"I will."

\+ + +

"Why do you want to ask Nino if he’d like to come with us to the camp?!" Jun asked Sho during lunch break a few days later, his eyebrows knitted. To be honest, Sho wasn’t surprised by his friend’s adverse reaction to his idea.

"Why not?" the older student asked, stubbornly. He had already made up his mind to ask Nino to join them, it wasn’t like he was asking Jun for permission.

"Does he look like someone who has fun camping? And I bet he doesn’t even have the money for the bus ride and everything," the younger student continued.

"I don’t even know if he would agree but... I don’t want him to be all alone over the holidays, OK?" Sho countered.

Jun sighed. "Well, whatever. Try ask him. I bet an ice cream on him not coming along with us."

"Bet!" Sho reached out his hand and Jun shook it before Sho jumped up, enthusiastically.

"Wait, where are you going?" Jun asked confused when he realized that Sho was about to leave. It was still at least 20 minutes before the next classes.

Sho grinned. "Searching for Nino, what else?"

"I think I saw him on the roof top," Ohno chimed in with a tired voice.

"Thanks, Satoshi!" Sho said and then he was off, not even caring about what Jun might have to say further.

Indeed, he found Nino up there, in the same spot in which they recently met when the two boys reconciled. Nino was sitting there with a cigarette in his hand and a half eaten lunch box next to him, his eyes closed and as always, he was listening to music. Sho didn’t hesitate, jumped to the boy, took the cigarette from him to stab it out on the floor and pulled off his headphones. Surprised, Nino had already parted his lips to protest, but when Sho flashed him his widest smile, it seemed like Nino went numb.

"Listen, Nino…," the older student started when he settled down next to him.

Nino adjusted his headphones around his neck in a more comfortable position. "Hm?"

Excitedly, Sho waited until the boy paid his full attention to him again and when they locked eyes, he burst out, "Would you like to join us for summer camp?"

"What?" Nino chuckled with a mixture of amusement and surprise. When Sho just looked at him with high expectations, Nino shook his head to make his point clearer. "No, definitely not."

"Why not?" Sho pouted. "We had so much fun last time... there are boys from every class, only one teacher to keep an eye on us - just in case - it’s great! We’re free to decide how to spend our days, go for walks in the nearby forest, fishing by the river -"

"Playing music around a campfire and singing country songs?" Nino sarcastically completed Sho’s description.

"Well," Sho tilted his head. "Usually the teacher brings a guitar and if we’re lucky enough to have someone around who can play..."

Nino sighed. "Come on, Sho," he said, causing a slight shiver to run over the other student’s back. It was only since their embrace - of which they didn’t talk about by the way - that Nino had switched from calling Sho "Sakurai" or giving him embarrassing names, to simply "Sho". Sho liked it. At lot. "I’m not the type for such gatherings, OK? Just... go with your friends and have fun, like last year..."

"You are my friend now too, Nino," Sho insisted. Even if they didn’t talk about what happened that evening after Sho met Nino’s mother, even if Nino still didn’t want to join Sho and his friends during lunch breaks, for Sho, things were clear. Their friendship might still be in the fledgling stage, but he was proud of their progress.

"Sho, no. I don’t want to, OK?" the younger student repeated.

But Sho was stubborn. "I know we’re not going to talk about money. Or your mother. But let’s be honest. Is it because it's too expensive? Or do you think you can't leave your mother alone for a few days?"

Nino sighed.

"Nino…," Sho continued. "She's not at home most of the time anyway, right? And I would imagine that during holidays you might prefer not to be home all day long. It will be the perfect chance to get away for a while… it may even be relaxing." Plus, the less Nino was exposed to that woman’s stupid comments, the better...

"Relaxing?" Nino frowned, challenging the other boy. "With a bunch of other guys that I don't have anything in common with?"

"They aren't so bad, you know? You used to be friends with Ohno, didn't you?" Sho countered.

"That's been years ago… we were kids…," Nino murmured.

"I think he didn't change much."

"Maybe I did..."

"I’m sure he wants to be your friend too, once again. He invited you to his party after all, didn’t he?" the older student pointed out, not missing the wave of gratefulness that ran through his body at that moment. Thinking back, he hadn’t expected to say this one day, but if he and Nino didn’t meet there at the party, they probably wouldn’t be here together now either.

"I think he was just polite... old times and such."

Sho didn’t give up. "Aiba is joining as well."

"I know."

"So?"

"So?" Nino mirrored the other boy.

Sho sighed deeply. "Oh come on Nino, it will be fun! You can use a little fun, believe me."

"No, thanks," the boy repeated again.

"I can pay your fees, if it's really the money!"

"You will not pay my fees, Sakurai." Ouch... back to family name basis?

"I mean... You can pay me back?" Sho tried again.

"I said no! You just want me to come along because you'd miss me like hell, don’t you?" Nino asked, his voice drowned in sarcasm.

Sho hesitated for a moment before he replied. "Maybe…," even if he wasn't ready to admit how much honesty was lying in this word.

"Stop joking!" Irritated, Nino averted his eyes (was this a blush on his cheeks?) and reached for his headphones to put them back on.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

"I guess, you owe me some ice cream, Sho," Jun said, when a bunch of boys met in front of school to get ready for summer camp two weeks later.

The bus was already waiting for them to get on. The last few heavier pieces of luggage, like a grill, the teacher’s guitar, the tents and some other stuff they might use at their destination, were already stored in the storage space down below, and some boys already took their seats in the bus, chatting cheerfully. Sho was still standing outside together with Jun, Aiba and two other boys who were talking about basketball, while Ohno had already settled inside to row of seats for him and Sho.

Sho had almost given up. Almost. He sighed. Well, what did he expect after Nino’s reaction to his suggestion the other day? They hadn’t even talked about the summer camp again, except the one time when Sho pushed a piece of paper into Nino’s hands which showed the details about the trip. Nino had looked at it and stuffed it into his bag, sighing, telling Sho again that he did not have any intention to join. So why would he change his mind now? He wouldn’t come, Sho thought, sighing. He ignored Jun’s comment though, simply turning to get onto the bus. Jun, Aiba and the rest followed him inside and the bus closed its door. The teacher gave the bunch of noisy boys some advices and told them to take their seats before the start of the bus ride. Of course, most of them weren't seated yet, still chatting with their friends or searching stuff in their backpacks.

"Did we forget someone?" Aiba suddenly asked, pointing out of the window at a black-haired boy dressed in casual clothes who was approaching the bus, riding a bicycle, hopping off and then seemed to hesitate about what to do next. "It’s Nino! Sho-kun, I thought he wouldn’t come?"

Sho, who had just settled right next to Ohno, who had already taken a nap and now seemed to wake up, jumped up from his seat, his heart skipping a beat at the sound of Nino’s name. He threw a look out of the window, recognizing the boy immediately, and rushed through the narrow corridor of the bus.

"Please, open the door!" he asked the bus driver, getting around the teacher who looked at him, confused.

The door flew open; Sho jumped down the couple of steps, and ran towards Nino, who was still standing there with his bicycle at his hands. The boy averted his eyes when Sho reached him, looking at him with surprise.

"Nino, what are you doing here, I thought you don’t want to-," Sho started, but Nino interrupted him.

"I - I just wanted to say bye... before you leave...," the boy murmured, but Sho could feel that something was off.

The student pointed at Nino’s backpack that the boy was carrying. "This is quite a fully packed backpack for just coming around to say bye, isn’t it?" he asked.

"Uhm...," Nino blushed slightly.

"You want to come along, right?" Sho smiled at his friend. "I’m happy you came, Nino!"

"I guess it's not a good idea though," the other boy murmured. "I didn't pay any fees and…"

Sho reached his hand to pat Nino’s shoulder. "It's OK, just come with us, it's fine, I'll talk to the teacher about the money issue and we’ll take care of that afterwards."

Nino locked eyes with Sho, who still couldn’t stop smiling from happiness.

"OK," Nino gave in. "Thanks, Sho."

They hurried back onto the bus, where the teacher was already standing in front, ready to scold them for the ruckus, but Sho was smooth with his explanation and thankfully, the teacher eventually accepted the request of taking Nino with them. The bus driver opened the storage room again to pack Nino’s bicycle away and then - finally - everyone was on the bus.

Some boys looked at Nino, suspiciously, some of them whispered to each other. Jun glared at the boy, who tried to ignore it as he followed Sho back to his row.

"Nino," Ohno nodded at him with a smile.

"Oh-chan," Nino replied with a nod and as always, that was kind of everything the two guys exchanged in communication. 

Aiba was overly happy to see his friend joining them and immediately pulled him into the bus row opposite to Ohno. 

Nino's eyes met Sho's when the student settled on the seat next to Ohno, whose head had snapped aside again, ready for the next nap. Aiba had already ripped open several packages of sweets and snacks, trying to get Nino to eat some, who refused. The cheerful guy pouted slightly but he then handed some over to Sho, who took them gladly. Jun, who had been in the front of the bus up to now, chatting with some classmates, finally approached them too, and when he saw Aiba and Nino having taken _his_ row, he glared at them.

"This is _my_ seat," he grumped at Nino, who looked at him wondering before Sho chimed in.

"Sorry, I didn't know your name is written on it," Nino grumped back and Jun took a deep breath, the anger showing in his furrowed eyebrows.

"Come on, Jun, don’t be silly," Sho said. "You can take the next row. And... I think _you_ owe me an ice cream now."

Sho knew that it might not have been the nicest thing to say to Jun at the moment, knowing that his friend still had some issues with Sho becoming close to Nino, but he couldn’t help it. And if his friendship with Jun really was worth something, they would eventually get over it. Huffing, the younger student gave in and took the row behind Aiba and Nino, to at least have Sho in sight. When Aiba turned around to offer Jun snacks, the boy took some and shortly after was nibbling on a chocolate bar which seemed to improve his mood at least a little bit.

The bus ride took about four hours and brought them out of town and up into the mountains to a camping site they had rented for a week. It was around midday when they arrived and the bunch of - now pretty hungry - students jumped off the bus. After unloading the storage space and checking the list of participants for the camp – Nino's name added in handwriting to the bottom list -, the teacher talked again to the bus driver, making sure that he would pick them up next week, same time, same place.

The weather was gorgeous, white castles of clouds towering in the azure blue sky and the green of the trees surrounding the camping area giving off a refreshing feeling. The temperature up here was pleasant, not as hot as in the city and the fresh breeze waving through the leaves felt awesome. The sounds of nature were enchanting... or would be, if there wasn’t a canon of grumpy boys’ voices like right now, demanding something "real" to eat, as if they didn’t munch away a ton of snacks during the past few hours.

"Boys, you know exactly how this works," the teacher said, his hands on his hips and a strict look on his face. "You’ll be divided into groups, some of you will put up the tents, some will go find some wood for the fire and some will be in charge for cooking. Any volunteers?"

Aiba and a handful other guys immediately lifted their hands, volunteering for the tents, to Sho’s relief, who didn’t even want to remember the disastrous attempt of building a tent, he and Jun had last year. Those things were definitely more complicated than expected! Jun, Maruyama, Sho and a shy boy called Kato from first grade that Sho didn’t know, were grouped for going to pick up wood and to Sho’s surprise, Nino volunteered for cooking. Well, probably it wasn’t that surprising, Sho had quickly learned that Nino was a really good cook, but he had partly hoped that they would share the same task. Considering how bad _he_ was at cooking though, Sho assumed that it wouldn’t be any good to switch teams now. Therefore, he nudged Ohno - whom he knew _could_ cook, if he wanted - and nodded into Nino’s direction. The older student then teamed up with Nino and two other guys. Sho felt better now, knowing that Ohno would watch over Nino and take care of him if needed.

Since Maruyama quickly took the new first grader, who apparently had never joined a summer camp before, under his care as they went out to collect some wood, Jun and Sho were quickly left behind. While Sho tried to chat a bit with his friend, he felt that the mood between them was... problematic. As so often recently, Jun only provided short answers, and didn’t really want to talk, obviously, which was very uncommon for him. In the end, Sho lost his patience.

"Jun... I can see that you’re in a terrible mood. What’s wrong?" Sho asked, coming to a halt in front of his friend and turning around to confront him.

Apparently, that was enough to make Jun explode. The boy dropped all the wooden sticks he had collected so far and buried his face in his hands. "What’s wrong... _What’s wrong_?! You even have to _ask_?!" he burst, yelling at Sho who widened his eyes in surprise. "It’s wrong that you brought Nino here with us, it wasn’t supposed to be like this!"

Sho sighed. So it was this old topic again. He shouldn’t even be surprised. "Is this because you lost a bet or because you just can’t bring yourself to try liking him? I told you he’s not such a bad guy as everyone says, he’s actually -"

"He’s _everything_ you talk about or think about, I know! He’s everywhere when it comes to you, Nino here, Nino there, I have enough of it!" Jun exclaimed and he sounded deadly serious.

Sho took a deep breath, trying not to start yelling in response. "I’m very sorry that I’m talking about one of my friends!"

"He’s not just your _friend_ ," the younger student continued. "You’re obviously _in love_ with that guy, head over heels, and it changes _everything_ and it makes me feel so sick!"

"What?!" Sho asked, surprised.

Jun rolled his eyes, before he continued growling. "Seriously, Sho, you’re even too stupid to realize it, give me a break!"

The older student blushed, being called "stupid" by Jun was definitely not how he imagined this conversation and how could he just assume things? "Whatever my feelings for Nino might be, why does it make _you_ so bitchy?!"

"You really don’t get it, do you?" Jun asked, desperately. He ran his fingers through his slightly curly hair. His voice had finally lowered, but the content of his words didn’t become better. "You do not understand a thing and I’m sick of it. I’m not talking to you anymore..."

With that, the boy turned around; aiming to walk back the path they had taken into the forest, not caring about the dropped wood or the confused look on Sho’s face.

"Jun, come on!" the older student tried to hold back his friend while he was bending down to pick up the wood. "We’re supposed to be here to have fun together!"

For a last time, Jun turned around, snapping at Sho. "You have your Nino so go have fun with _him_ and leave me alone!"

Sho stayed behind, dumbfounded. He remembered the talk with Ohno a couple of weeks ago, what his friend said about Jun being jealous of Sho’s "new friend". However, Sho hadn’t expected what this jealousy would turn Jun into. He didn’t like it, and he wondered if there was something he could do about it. He had tried to explain Jun that things wouldn’t change... but was that true?

Sho thought about Jun’s accusation that he was in love with Nino. His heart had started beating faster when Jun had voiced those words... Sho had to admit that he himself hadn’t thought things through to that point yet. What were his feelings for Nino? Didn’t he only want to befriend him?

While Sho collected the left pieces of wood and slowly strolled back to the camp, he was lost in thoughts, thoughts about Nino, trying to figure things out. He wanted to be with him. As much as he could. He was casually thinking about their kiss on the party, about the time when Nino leaned his head against Sho’s shoulder, or their embrace and he thought about it once more right now. It made his heart beating faster. It made him want to repeat it, hug him again, kiss him again, and if Sho was completely honest to himself, this wasn’t the first time he was having such thoughts.

Yeah, probably, Jun was right and Sho was in love with Nino. But should he feel guilty about it? And what did it have to do with Jun? Did he really have such a big problem with sharing his best friend? Did he fear that in case Sho and Nino became a _thing_ , Sho wouldn’t care about him anymore? That was simply bullshit. Further, there was no guarantee that Nino would accept a confession - if Sho would ever be courageous enough to make one - so Jun’s fear was probably without grounds, anyway...

\+ + +

When Sho returned to the camp, he wasn’t surprised that their teacher approached him, asking him what happened between him and Jun. Apparently, the younger student had been so mad at Sho, that he had requested to be transferred to another tent, different from the first distribution which had been set during the bus ride. According to the initial plan, Jun was to share a tent with Ohno, Sho and - of course to his disliking - Nino. Usually, there were three boys per tent, while the teacher had his own tent and being given the choice to either share his sleeping space with his teacher or Sho and his friends, Nino had chosen the latter option. Now, Jun was walking up to Aiba, probably asking him - knowing that Aiba usually couldn’t say no if people asked him for something in a nice manner - if he could share his and his friends’ tent instead.

"I’m not going to ask what happened," Ohno simply said, when Sho approached him and dropped the collected firewood for the campfire in the evening.

"Better that way," Sho sighed. When he caught Nino’s confused look, he forced himself to smile at the boy. "How’s cooking going?"

Their teacher had returned to his position behind the small gas grill he had brought along on which some meat and sausages were sizzling, while Nino and Ohno seemed to be responsible for the vegetables and salad.

"It’s OK," Nino said, shrugging.

"OK, he says, Sho, seriously, you have to try his salad dressing, it’s heavenly," Ohno said, making Sho smile - sincerely this time.

After a festive meal in the afternoon, the boys were free to do what they wanted, with exception that they wouldn’t do anything illegal or forbidden, and that they would be back at the camp around 9 pm for a small dinner. Aiba and some of his friends immediately took the chance to change into their swimming wear and jumped into the mountain river nearby. Their cheerful screams could be heard in the radius of about a kilometre, Sho was convinced of that. Jun had joined Aiba and his group - it might be just to avoid Sho and Nino – and Ohno had pulled out a fishing rod and some equipment and took Kato with him to a nice spot he discovered last year, when he realized that the young boy was obviously interested in fishing too.

Sho and Nino, accompanied by Maruyama, who seemed to have swallowed a book judging by the amount of words that were spilling out of his mouth, had chosen to take a walk through the nearby forest and - Sho’s idea - collect some berries for dessert. To be honest, for the whole walk Sho couldn’t help but wish that he was alone with Nino. It was hard to ignore Maruyama and his 1.000 syllables, and he wasn’t able to talk to Nino as freely as he wanted to. Anyway, whenever Sho and Nino accidentally bumped into each other while walking along the forest path, or when their hands touched when Sho offered Nino his help to climb over some rocks, his heart beat sped up a little bit and warmth spread through his body. The more Sho thought about it, the clearer his conclusion became. Yes, he liked Nino. More than just a friend.

A couple of hours later, when everyone was back at the camping place, dinner was served and the cheerful voices of the other boys could be heard from the campfire. Nino had decided to stay away and watch the scene a bit from the outside. Probably, Sho thought, since Nino wasn’t used to being part of a group, he felt a bit overwhelmed by everything, needing some time for himself. Well, they had more than enough time to bring Nino closer to the others, this was only the first evening of a whole week. However, of course, Sho couldn’t resist standing up from the circle of friends that was laughing over a couple of old camping stories that their teacher was telling them, and search for Nino.

In the end, Sho found the boy in their tent, rummaging through his backpack. The dim light of a small lamp hanging from the middle of the tent’s ceiling lit the space up, just enough to see what was inside of Nino’s bag. The student was about to curse, when Sho entered, pulling the zipper of the tent close behind him in order not to let in any mosquitoes or other horrible creatures.

"What’s wrong, Nino?" he asked.

Nino turned around, looking at Sho. "Ah... I can’t find my toothbrush..."

"Are you sure you brought one along?" Sho pointed at the other boy’s backpack.

"Very sure," Nino nodded. "I explicitly bought a new one for this...," he added, murmuring.

"Hm... well if you can’t find it, want to take one of mine?" Sho offered. "My mom gave me like extra three new ones, just in case I lose them."

"Sounds like it wouldn’t be the first time," Nino chuckled.

Sho laughed. "Well, she knows me too well, I guess."

He pulled his toiletry bag out of his backpack and reached inside to search for a spare toothbrush for Nino, handing him a brand new one. Nino accepted it gratefully, and the two of them went to the river together to brush their teeth, next to each other, sitting there by the gurgling of the water, which was drowning their own. While Sho was still splashing water on his face afterwards, enjoying the cool liquid on his warm skin, Nino’s eyes were glued to his cell phone screen. He flipped the phone close, wanting to put it away, but then he seemed to reconsider, pulled it in front of him again and flipped it back open, continuing to stare at the screen.

"Are you waiting for a call?" Sho asked when he came to sit next to Nino who had taken place on top of a rock covered with moss.

"Uhm... just checking...," Nino murmured, pushing his phone back into his trousers' pocket.

"Your mother?" Sho guessed. "Did she call?"

Nino shook his head. "She didn’t. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she does... I only left some food and a letter telling her that I’ve gone for camping for a whole week..."

"You didn’t talk to her about it?" Sho asked, slightly shocked.

"She wouldn’t have allowed it," Nino replied, his voice sounding a bit desperate.

Sho sighed. "You told her I offered to pay for you?" Just in case this was the problem...

Of course, it wasn’t. "Sho... just as much as I don’t like it if you paid the fees for me, she wouldn’t like it either. She has... still some pride left."

"So... you basically ran away?"

Nino looked at Sho, confused and insecure. "Did I run away?"

The older student didn’t really know how to react to that. He reached out his hand and put it on top of Nino’s thigh. "It will be OK..."

"I don’t know... if she doesn’t call... maybe she doesn’t care?"

"Maybe she’s still out and didn’t see your message yet," Sho said. "It’s possible, right?"

"True..."

"Now stop worrying for. Wouldn't you rather join us at the campfire?" Sho asked, flashing Nino a smile with his now perfectly white teeth. "Ohno told me that you played the guitar in middle school..."

"Oh that traitor," Nino murmured. "Forget it, I’m not going to play!"

"Why not? It doesn’t have to be much, just a bit... you know...," Sho made a gesture of pretending to hold a guitar, strumming invisible strings.

Nino sighed. "You really want to sing country songs so badly?" he added in a teasing tone.

"I like country songs," Sho admitted shrugging and maybe for the first time ever, he earned a sincere laugh from Nino and it sounded beautiful to his ears.

\+ + +

It took Sho three days to convince Nino to try and play the guitar for them when they met around the campfire like the previous evenings as a tradition. Sho started singing a song, joined by Ohno. Nino was sitting next to him, clasping the guitar in his hands, nervously. Only after they finished the first verse and Sho smiled at him again, Nino slowly started playing, at first slowly, then it increased, once Nino got accustomed to the feeling of holding a guitar in his hands again and had gotten into the rhythm of the song. He had told Sho that it had been quite a while since he last held an instrument in his hands, since middle school, to be exact, and even then Nino had only been able to practise at school. Soon, his playing got more refined and it showed that he knew quite well what he was doing, playing along to a couple of songs until a round of applause went off – by everyone but Jun who was still not talking to neither Sho nor Nino - and Nino hurriedly pressed the guitar back into their beaming teacher’s hands.

"That was amazing, Ninomiya-kun!" the teacher said, smiling.

Nino only shook his head, embarrassed. Sho already knew him well enough to know that Nino seemed to have trouble to accept praise, to which he wasn't used obviously, but deep inside he must be happy. He had seen that behaviour during their English studies and now it wasn't that different.

The younger boy stood up, and headed off towards the river, probably to splash some fresh water onto his face to calm down his nerves. Sho smiled when he saw the other students' perplex faces. First, it must be a surprise for everyone to see troublemaker Nino playing the guitar, voluntarily, second, they saw him actually embarrassed. Here, he seemed to be completely different from school.

It was only then, when Sho realized that usually Nino only showed this side to him. Others usually knew him to be grumpy and snarky, if he was even willing to talk. But since the two of them got to know each other better, Sho had slowly but surely discovered Nino's real face. An insecure and shy person who seemed to have trouble showing his kindness, probably, because he never really learned how to do that, and was hiding behind a "stronger" appearance than he actually was. Opening up and trusting people were probably his first few steps into the right direction and Sho was somehow a little proud about the fact that he was the first person Nino showed this side of him to.

The student then stood up too, intending to follow Nino and say a few words to him, while the teacher tried playing the guitar, getting scolded and teased by the remaining students that he was doing a lame job compared to Nino.

As expected, Sho found the boy by the river, washing his face and breathing in and out deeply. Sho stepped next to him and bent down too to touch the cool water, letting it run through his opened fingers. He turned to Nino, smiled at him and then suggested that they could go for a walk. Not too far away, since it was late already, but just a bit further away from the hustle and bustle.

"You did great," Sho said as they were walking next to each other, slowly.

"It's embarrassing, let's never ever talk about it again, please," Nino replied, his head lowered and his hands stuffed into his pockets.

They just arrived at the edge of the forest behind the area where they had built the tents. When Sho stopped and leaned his back against a huge tree, Nino did the same and from the shadows of the falling night, they watched the scenery together. The sounds of nature were embracing them. The campfire was still in sight, but the people sitting around it were just small dark silhouettes. Joyful laughter reached their ears from afar, far away enough to give them a sense of privacy. 

"I have to admit, when we first met, I didn't expect you to be the shy type," Sho suddenly started.

A bit surprised, Nino looked at him, before he literally shied away again. "Well…, I usually try not to be, but in front of you, faking is hard," the boy said honestly.

Sho's heart jumped. He appreciated it a lot that Nino was sharing his thoughts with him. He was really opening up to him more and more. "You're like a different person."

"You ripped my guard down," Nino said after taking a deep breath. He turned his face and they locked eyes. "This is the real me… are you disappointed?"

"That you're not as much of a dick as you pretended to be?" Sho chuckled. "Definitely not. I like the _real_ you." He smiled.

"Good…," was everything, Nino said before he averted his eyes and they fell silent for a while.

"What about your mother, did she call you in the meantime?" Sho cut the silence after a few minutes. He hadn't seen the boy talking on the phone those past few days, but it wasn't like they were glued together 24 hours a day so it was still possible that Nino had spoken to his mum.

The boy shook his head though. "No, she didn't. She left a bunch of messages though… not so pleasant ones…"

Sho cringed. After hearing from Nino that he hadn't really spoken about the camp with his mother, he had already feared that there would be consequences for the boy. "What did she…"

Nino shook his head again. He obviously didn't want to say and Sho had to accept it. However, he said something different, in a whisper, even if it was unlikely that anyone but Sho could hear him anyway. "Sometimes I wished I didn't have to go back into that apartment…"

After looking at the boy for a moment, Sho instinctively reached his hand out to find Nino's, which wasn't too far away and with a fast beating heart, he slowly took it in his own. The younger student seemed surprised at first by the touch, but he didn't fight against it. When Sho slightly pressed his hand and warmth was spreading between them, the boy answered, pressing Sho's hand with his own slightly shaking hand, tightly. Sho released a deep breath, relieved and happy that the other boy accepted his gesture.

"You know… this might not be something that will cheer you up, and the reasons are nothing compared to your problems… but sometimes, I feel the same about my home," Sho said, more to distract Nino from his probably highly depressing thoughts than to talk about his own sorrows. But even he had to agree, that he felt the urge of trusting them to someone too, especially when that someone was as important to him as Nino.

"How come?" Nino asked in a low voice. "I thought you have everything you wish for. Friends, family, a huge house, good grades, money…"

"To be honest...," Sho took a deep breath and looked at Nino. He pressed his hand a little harder. "I've never told this to anyone before but… I don’t want to become a doctor."

"Hm...," Nino nodded. "I thought so, to be honest."

"Did you?" the other boy replied but deep inside, he knew that Nino would know, or at least suspect something. Back then when he visited him for the first time and they were talking about university (well, having a fight about that topic to be exact) he already had the feeling that Nino was able to look through his pretence. "Well... I’m a bad liar I guess. But my family still believes I will become a doctor. I just can’t tell them..."

"What do you want to become?" Nino asked, pressing Sho's hand.

"I think, I would like to become a teacher," Sho said, seriously, immediately earning a cute chuckle from Nino. "Hey, what’s so funny about that?"

"Oh, I’m sorry. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not funny, it’s just... I think that it would fit you very well. And I mean that in a good way," the boy explained.

Sho looked at him. The dim light from the far away campfire and the stars high up in the night sky created a small sparkle in Nino's eyes. "Really?"

"Really," Nino nodded, smiling. "You helped me a lot in English. It wouldn't have been possible if you didn't have teaching skills," he said before making a small pause as if he wanted to add something more. "Maybe you should just try talking to them. I’m sure, they will listen to you and understand your wishes."

For a few seconds, Sho didn't say anything, surprised to hear the other trying to cheer him up. He appreciated it, a lot, but still, there were some heavy doubts on his mind. "They will probably disinherit me...," the student murmured.

"Oh come on, it can’t be _that_ bad!" Nino replied, and Sho could swear he rolled his eyes for a second. "Don’t you think they will accept your choice? Teacher is an honourable job after all, isn’t it? Maybe you won’t earn as much as a doctor, but it’s important work too and-"

Nino wasn't able to finish his sentence. Sho interrupted him. Not with words, but with a kiss. A very unexpected kiss – for both of them -, a light kiss, a sweet kiss, a muting kiss, but Sho's feelings of love and gratefulness for that boy in front of him became so strong, he wasn't able to hold back anymore. So Sho had taken a step forward, turned around quickly and leaned forward to meet Nino's lips with his own, making the other freeze and stop talking in the middle of his cheering for Sho. 

The student's heart stopped beating for a moment and then, when it started beating again, it felt like drums were shaking up his whole body. It felt good. _So_ good. Addictive. He remembered the scene from Ohno's party, the way Nino had muted _him_ in a very similar way, even if he might have had completely different motives and feelings than what Sho was feeling right now. Probably still had… It was nothing compared to that kiss back then. It was so much better, it _tasted_ so much better too, Sho thought, a bit surprised, when he noticed the difference to the smoky kiss from the last time that had tasted like alcohol. Slowly but surely, Sho slipped from his daze back into reality, realizing what he just did.

Nervously, Sho drew back, his lips immediately missing the soft touch of Nino's. He searched the boy's eyes in the darkness, seeing the distant light reflecting on Nino's white skin, a short sparkle in his eyes. Still, Nino didn't say a word and just kept staring at Sho. Their hands were still connected between them, the grip tightened with the tension between them.

"What… was that?" Nino finally asked after what had felt like an eternity, in a weak voice.

Sho swallowed, his lips feeling dry, and his heart still pounding like crazy in his chest. "You… you were talking so much, I needed to _shut you up_ ," he referred to what Nino had said months ago, trying to joke in order to hide his nervousness.

Nino chuckled, a bit insecure, he must recognize Sho’s hint on their first kiss. "And why do _you_ look surprised then?"

"I expected the kiss to taste like smoke… like the last time…," Sho admitted.

"I didn't smoke."

"Because of the camp?" Sho asked. "Now that you mention it, I didn't see you –"

"I decided to quit," Nino cut him.

"Really?! That's awesome!" the older boy replied, joyfully. Maybe, his scolding was finally bearing fruits. Or Nino, by himself, had just realized how dangerous it was.

"It's nothing _awesome_ , stop that," Nino shied away.

Sho smiled. "Then… let's not talk about it for now. Or about jobs..."

"You have something else in mind?"

"Well… actually yes, but it has nothing to do with talking…," Sho admitted, taking a step closer to Nino.

He didn't know if he had to ask if the boy would be okay with him kissing him again, but if Nino didn't like it, he would show him or he would have probably slapped him already, right? Sho just had to try, to risk it again. So he took another step forward, his free hand reaching up to brush his fingertips against Nino's cheek. His smooth skin almost felt like silk. Sho heard Nino inhaling strongly and held his breath, but the boy didn't turn away. The older student leaned his forehead against Nino's, the boy was now flat against the tree behind him, starting to breathe again. Sho could feel Nino's free hand shyly searching its way onto Sho's hip as if he was searching for something to hold onto. The tension between them was almost unbearable, it was breath taking, electrifying. They were so close and Sho wasn't sure, how long he would be able to take it.

Unexpectedly, it was Nino who dared to move first, pushing his face slightly up, his nose brushing against Sho's in a sensitive gesture. Goosebumps were covering Sho's whole body when Nino took another deep breath and then pushed a little further and their lips met again, this time firmer, and they started kissing again. Softly, testing, then quickly becoming more passionate, giving in to their hunger. Sho's hand slipped to Nino's nape, the touch caused the younger to sigh into their kiss, and pulled him closer. Sho couldn't believe his luck, his heart overflowing from joy. There he was with the boy he had fallen in love with, the _first_ boy he had ever fallen in love with, and they were _kissing_! _Again_! And it was the best thing that Sho had ever done in his entire life.

The boys parted lips when they ran out of breath. When Sho leaned his forehead against Nino's again, he wondered if the other boy's knees were feeling as weak as his. He wondered about so many things, to be honest, question after question were popping up his mind. He had to find answers.

"Nino?" Sho whispered into the silence between them.

"Hm?"

"Are you my boyfriend now?" the student burst before he even realized how stupid the question sounded.

"Are you saying that you really want to be in a relationship with me?" Nino asked, surprised.

Sho let his hand slide down Nino's shoulder and arm until he reached his hand to hold it. Holding both of his hands now, Sho continued. "Well… I want to be with you. I'd like to do this again, I mean, only if you want it too, of course… and if yes, I'd like to name this thing between us."

For a few seconds, Nino didn't reply and Sho's heart was almost killing him, fearing rejection.

"Have you ever been in a relationship?" Nino asked when he finally talked again.

"No… not really," Sho admitted, honestly. "You?"

"Relationship, not really, I guess…," Nino murmured. "But I met someone for a few times."

"A guy?" Sho couldn't help but ask. Nino nodded. "Tell me more about it."

"What can I tell you…," Nino sighed before he started, obviously insecure about what he was about to share. Probably, it wasn't that easy to explain. "He lived in the same apartment complex. It was during my last year of middle school when we started meeting regularly. He was in the last year of high school. We never really talked about it but I think, we both felt kind of lonely and so…"

"Were the two of you in love?" the other student asked.

Nino tilted his head, thinking. "Hm… I wonder… I don't think he was."

Sho swallowed, feeling his heart pounding hard. "And you?"

Nino pursed his lips. "Well, let's say I had a crush on him or I wouldn't have agreed… But it didn't last. He's a university student now, I didn't see him since his graduation. I don't even know where he moved to and I don't care."

Probably, Nino would be hitting him for asking the next question but somehow, Sho just couldn't hold back his curiosity. "Did you… kiss and such?"

"You mean if we had sex?" Nino arched an eyebrow, obviously recognising the other's curiosity immediately.

"Did you?"

Nino nodded. "Once."

Sho would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised. Counting back… Nino was only about 14 years old, right? Much too young for an experience like this, Sho thought, but then, he didn't know the circumstances, he didn't know about Nino and that guy's feelings and motives at that time. He could just hope that that guy didn't force himself onto Nino, that would be horrible…

However, Sho probably shouldn't ask such detailed questions, so he kept it simple. "Wow… How was it?"

"…Weird," Nino replied after a short pause. He looked embarrassed. "What… why is this talk suddenly? Can we stop?!"

"Did it hurt?" Sho burst out one more question.

"It did," Nino lowered his head. "But… it's supposed to become better the more often…," clenching Sho's hands tightly, Nino looked up again. He was obviously embarrassed now. "Why are we talking about this, Sho?"

"Sorry," the older student murmured. "I'm just curious, I guess. About you and about your experiences… "

For a few seconds they didn't say anything, the insecurity about how things between them would go on from now between them. Further, Nino hadn't answered Sho's question about their "status" after all… Then, suddenly, Nino spoke up again.

"You'd like to do it? With me?" he asked.

Sho stared at him, surprised. He hadn't expected this kind of question, to be honest. Searching for the right words to reply, he started stuttering. "Well… someday, probably… of course, only if you want too…" The boy knew they didn't really have to talk about this now. It didn't matter. They were young, they had time. That meant, if Nino would finally accept…

"Probably, I will want it one day…," Nino replied and Sho's heart stopped beating for a moment. "I mean, if we're in a relationship, sooner or later…"

Sho inhaled strongly. "So you agree to being my boyfriend?" he asked, just to confirm that he didn't misunderstand the situation.

"I guess, yes. But… let's take it slow, OK?" Nino replied and Sho's heart bloomed.

Beaming, he sent the younger boy a soft chuckle. "Says the one who kissed me first."

"I thought that kiss on Ohno's balcony didn't count?" Nino pouted cutely, averting his eyes.

"Of course it counts. It was a kiss from you after all," Sho replied and Nino smiled.

"I'm serious…," the younger boy then whispered.

"Good then, because I am too," Sho smiled, leaning closer again. "And don't worry, we don't need to rush."

When they kissed for the third time that evening, Sho's heart was ready to burst from happiness. In his almost 18 years of living, he had never before felt something like that. It was just incredible. His hands clumsily all over Nino, not really knowing where he should touch or hold him in order to have him in the tightest embrace possible, the two of them shifted positions a bit, still kissing fiercely, only breaking apart when they were running out of breath, just to catch new one before continuing.

"Sho?"

Only, when they suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from behind them, the two boys parted and turned around quickly. Jun was standing there in the half darkness, close to one of the tents, carrying a torch and staring at them, shocked.

"Jun…," Sho said, immediately realizing how bad that current situation was looking.

His hand was still sneaked around Nino's waist, Nino's hands buried in the fabric of his shirt. Instinctively feeling that something was wrong, Nino loosened his grip and stepped away from Sho, who slightly cursed. Just a few days ago he and Jun had had a fight because his friend had assumed him that Sho was in love with Nino and was probably scared to lose his best friend. Now _this_ scene was most likely not one that would show Jun that things would stay as they were supposed to. Sho knew that this scene instead might trigger his friend to believe that Sho would move away from him even further, even if he didn't intend to… This was too complicated to deal with right now, Sho thought.

Before Sho could explain the situation though, Jun had already turned and started to walk away, quickly. OK, so obviously, talking wasn't an option right now, the older student assumed. For a moment, he fought with himself, considering if he should follow Jun, but on the other hand, he didn't want to risk another fight so maybe it was better to let things sit for a moment and talk tomorrow.

"Don't you want to go after him?" Nino asked just when Sho had decided against it.

He shook his head. "Let's leave him be for now. I'll talk to him tomorrow. Shall we go back to the campfire?" he then suggested. 

Shortly after, Nino followed him to join Ohno, Aiba and the rest of the boys – except Jun who seemed to have drawn back for now – for a last chat before going to bed. About an hour later, just when they were about to settle back in their tents, Aiba suddenly turned up in front of Sho, Ohno and Nino's tent, with a worried look on his face.

"What's wrong, Aiba-kun?" Sho asked, frowning.

"Did you see Jun-kun?" the other boy asked. "I thought he would be waiting in the tent but he's not there and I can't see him anywhere…"

"Did you check if he's by the river, brushing his teeth maybe?" Ohno suggested.

"He's not there," Aiba shook his head. "And I can't reach him by phone," he added when he saw Sho typing on his phone's screen.

Sho groaned, putting his phone away. "Great… What is he doing?!"

"Did something happen again?" Aiba asked Sho carefully. 

Of course, he knew that there was a fight between the two friends, which caused Jun to flee to Aiba's tent the first evening they arrived at the camp, but he probably didn't know any details and honestly, Sho would appreciate if it stayed that way.

"It's getting late, it's dark, we probably should go search for him," Nino suggested nervously when Sho exchanged a look with him. Ohno and Aiba nodded in agreement.

"OK, I'll tell the teacher and ask if some of the others can help us with the search," Sho added before he ran towards the teacher's tent.

When Sho came back to take Nino with him, Aiba had already left together with some other boys, while Ohno was still waiting for his friend, his arms crossed and a strict look on his face. When Sho arched an eyebrow as he saw him like that, Ohno rolled his eyes.

"Nino told me what happened," Ohno said and Sho darted a wondering look at Nino just before Ohno continued speaking. "Well, not _everything_ , don't worry, but he told me that Jun has seen the two of you together and you know... it's not that hard to guess what you must have been doing to scare Jun away like this..."

"Satoshi...," Sho lowered his head.

"Do you now get what's wrong with Jun, at least?" the older student finally asked, but Sho didn't reply. "You've really been blind, haven't you?" Ohno sighed. "Jun is in love with you, you idiot! He's in love with you for years and you just..."

"If you knew," Sho started, pouting, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Would that change anything?" Ohno asked back. "Would it change the fact that you've fallen for Nino?"

Sho looked at Nino, who averted his eyes in embarrassment. Then, Sho looked back at Ohno, shaking his head determined. "It wouldn't change my feelings towards Nino. But maybe I wouldn't have been such a jerk in front of Jun..."

But regret wouldn't be of any help right now. The boys ran into the forest, so shortly after, everyone was out somewhere, helping to search for Jun. Equipped with torches, some boys had teamed up to walk along the river, checking if the boy took a stroll further away from the camp, others walked into the woods. Sho and Nino were already quite deep in the forest, wondering if Jun had really gone that far, when they arrived at a fork, the path splitting in two narrow paths, one guiding up, the other down, towards another river, judging from the sound of the gurgling water. Nobody else was there, the boys all spread through the dark, creepy forest. From the distance, a few calls of Jun's name could be heard.

"Let's take the left way first," Sho suggested and Nino nodded.

Reaching back to take Nino's hand, Sho stepped forward and the two boys slowly went down the steep narrow path in the dark, only the light of the torch guiding their way.

"Do you really think he went down _here_? It's a very dangerous path," Nino asked a few minutes later. "Or what if he got hurt?"

"Don't say something like that, Nino, please," Sho said, the nervousness audible in his voice. "He'll be fine…"

"Wait," Nino reached at Sho's shoulder, stopping him. "Isn't that a light?"

"Where?"

Nino pointed into a direction and indeed, in the distance there seemed to be a small light. It could either be one of the boys searching for Jun, or Jun himself.

"Jun?!" Sho shouted into the dark forest, louder, again and again, the closer they came, accompanied by Nino's "Matsumoto!".

Then, _finally_ there was a reaction. At first, Sho couldn't understand it but the closer they approached, the better he could recognize Jun's voice calling his name. The path was still steep and narrow, but Sho and Nino tried to speed up, the light of their torch shaking wildly as they walked along the path towards the light as fast as they could. And soon, they arrived, Sho knelt down to pick up a torch which must have been dropped there in front of a huge root, while Nino quickly turned towards a large rock. A figure was crouching there.

"Matsumoto!" Nino exclaimed, the relief in his voice obvious. Sho, a few steps away, turned one of the torches he was holding into the direction from which Nino's voice was coming. Nino looked down at the boy who was holding his ankle. "Hey… oh no, you're hurt? Let me see…"

But instead of letting the boy come close, Jun lifted his hand and pushed Nino slightly backwards as the student bent down towards him. "Go away, Ninomiya, I don't want to see you!"

"Matsumoto… please, let me help you," Nino said in a desperate voice.

"I said, leave me alone!" Jun yelled at him. "I hate you! You took Sho away from me! And why are you so nice suddenly?! You're not supposed to be nice, you're a grumpy troublemaker without any friends so why…," his fierce voice broke. "Why does Sho… why you and not me?"

Sho wasn't able to say anything at that moment. The light from the torch which was directed at Nino and Jun showed enough to make him realize that Jun was crying and Sho wasn't sure if it was because of the injury Nino was referring to or because Sho broke his heart. Anyway, he felt horrible. It had never been his intention to hurt his friend. He wasn’t in the mood for jealousy and drama, that was true, but he never wanted to really hurt Jun. However, the inevitable had happened and now, apologizing was probably the only thing to do, because Sho knew that his feelings wouldn't change and nobody could blame him for that.

"Matsumoto… I'm really sorry," Nino said, surprisingly being the first to apologize. "It wasn't my intention to take Sho away from you. I _never_ planned to become his friend or anything, but Sho... he is the first one who was willing to get to know me better and to help me," the boy continued, his voice low and sounding a bit weak. "I'm not as tough as I pretend to be, obviously. I don't want to be the troublemaker that everyone sees in me. Sho gave me a chance and we… I… I really fell in love with him and apparently he fell in love with me too and you have _no_ idea but…," Sho inhaled deeply when he heard his boyfriend speaking such words, with so much honesty and so much feelings in them. "It's fine if you hate me but this thing with Sho, it really is the only good thing in my life so please… please don't ruin it!"

There was silence between the three boys, nobody able to speak anymore. Sho was still holding his breath, and his heart was beating like crazy. His look was switching from Nino back to Jun, who was looking at Nino with desperate eyes, before he broke down in new tears. Nino lowered his head, apologetically and Jun didn't say a word. He didn't fight Nino any longer though. The boy finally reached out his hands and started examining Jun's ankle which must be sprained, according to his assumption. He waved at Sho, who took a closer look, cringing.

"Jun, we've all been worried for you," Sho said in a soft voice. "Are you OK? Can you walk?"

After sobbing a few more times, wiping his tears with his dirty hands, Jun replied. "I don't know…"

"Come," Sho said, turning around and offering his back to his friend. "Hop on, I'll carry you back."

"What?" Jun asked surprised, "But the path is dangerous, you can't carry me -"

"We'll manage, don't worry," Sho smiled. "Nino will help us, right Nino?"

Nino nodded, his lips curling into a small smile too.

Just a few seconds later, Jun was on Sho's back and Nino was behind them, his hand on Jun's back to support the two boys in front of him, climbing the way. From behind, he lighted the way with one of the torches and slowly, step by step, they made their way back up to the main path, which guided them right back into the camp. Nino had called Aiba, telling him that he and Sho had found Jun, and Aiba immediately offered to call the other students, who were still searching, to spread the happy news.

Besides that, the walk back was completely silent until finally, just a few minutes before the boys would reach the camp, Sho suddenly spoke up. He had been searching his mind for the right words to tell his friend, to set things right, even if he knew that for Jun nothing might feel right at the moment. However, he couldn't let things stay the way they were right now, or their friendship might suffer more sooner or later. He didn't want to risk that. He didn't want to lose his best friend.

"Jun," Sho started in a soft voice. Jun slightly shifted his head, which he had bedded between Sho's strong shoulder blades, tiredly, when he heard his friend speaking to him. "Listen, you are my best friend since childhood and if it's OK for you, that will stay forever, I promise. I'm sorry I cannot offer more to you and I hope you'll be able to accept it so that things between us can go back to what they were before." He made a pause. Nobody said a word. "I hope I'm not asking for too much..."

When Sho felt Jun shaking his head in his back, a weight lifted from his heart. Nino, who was now walking in front of the two boys, looked at them and when his eyes met Sho's, they exchanged a smile. With that, Sho knew that everything would be OK.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

At least things with Jun were OK again after what happened that night during the summer camp. As soon as Jun, Sho and Nino had arrived back at the camp, the teacher had scolded Jun for suddenly disappearing into the dark forest in the middle of the night, without telling anybody about his plans. Sho had protected his friend and taken the blame, explaining that they had a fight and it wasn't Jun's fault alone. The teacher had scratched the back of his head and swallowed it, with Jun promising that he would never ever do something like that again.

That night, far beyond midnight, after Sho had taken proper care of Jun's injury and Jun had thanked all the others for helping to search him, Jun for the first time slept in the same tent as Sho, Nino and Ohno. 

The teacher was nice enough not to wake any of the boys too early the next morning, after such a long and exciting night. Apparently, Jun had lost his cell phone somewhere in the forest, which he only realised after a late breakfast when he wanted to set a call to his parents. Aiba generously offered to carry Jun, who still felt pain when he tried to walk, and go search for the device together with him. When they returned, Aiba's face was flushed red and he threw suspicious looks at Sho and Nino who had teamed up to cook lunch (OK, Sho was only assisting) at the campfire. Jun must have poured his heart out to the kind guy and Sho couldn't blame him. He only hoped that his and Nino's secret – since they both didn't want to make it too public that they were a couple now – would be safe with his basketball team mate.

The last few days in the camp went by smoothly without any further unpleasant events, as the friends tried to make the best out of the remaining time together. While most of them enjoyed the warm days with playing ball games and swimming, Jun had to watch, due to his injured leg. However, Nino, who wasn't interested in neither swimming nor ball games apparently, joined him and slowly but surely, they seemed to warm up to each other too, much to Sho's delight. When Jun couldn't bear the guilt anymore, he even confessed to Nino that it was him who stole his toothbrush on the first evening. Nino only chuckled and offered Jun a small smile.

On the morning of their departure from the camp, when they went for a last stroll through the forest just as the two of them, Nino seemed visibly nervous. Sho asked him if it had something to do with his mother and if he was scared of getting scolded by her when he returned home, but the boy refused to talk about it and tried his best to pretend to be OK. In the end, Sho repeated his offer that he once made – whenever Nino needed him, he would be there for him. Nino thanked him with a loving kiss before they headed back to camp to help taking down the tents and packing the rest of the stuff into the bus that came to pick them up again.

\+ + +

Sho _knew_ that things were definitely _not_ OK when Nino showed up in front of his house late in the evening of the same day and his forehead was bleeding. 

Nino had been quiet during the bus ride home, mostly, he seemed to have fallen asleep, his head bedded on Sho's shoulder as they were sharing a row (Jun was sharing with Aiba, and Ohno had willingly taken a whole row for himself behind them for lying down and taking a proper nap) and with his headphones on. Sho wondered though, if his boyfriend was faking. 

They arrived back at school in the afternoon. When they had taken out all their things from the bus's storage space, and Nino got back his bicycle, he seemed a bit hesitant to go home and so Sho decided to stay with him for a bit longer. They chatted a bit with Jun, Ohno and Aiba before they got picked up by their parents or headed for the bus station.

"If you want, I can come with you and we talk to your mom together," Sho offered when he and Nino were the last ones left.

"Thanks, but that's not necessary," Nino said, shaking his head. 

"You seem seriously troubled, Nino. Do you think she'll become _that_ mad?" Sho asked, worried, his hand holding Nino's since they were alone. His boyfriend would probably have to endure a lot of scolding and some sharp comments by his mother, Sho was sure that that woman wouldn't treat her son nicely after he left for the camp without permission a week ago. "I could insist on coming along."

"No, really, there's no need to," Nino exclaimed, his expression serious. "I have to do this on my own." 

Sho didn't have a choice but to respect Nino's decision. It was Nino's family after all, it wasn't his right to intrude. Still, he couldn't help but worry.

"Call me once you're home, I need to know that you're fine, OK?" the older boy said, kissing his boyfriend on the cheek lovingly and Nino nodded before they parted ways.

When Nino's call finally came, it was dark already. Sho, who was watching a movie together with his mother in the living room, was staring at his phone for hours, worried like hell after Nino didn’t pick up any of his calls. He was just about to jump up and go to Nino's place when his phone finally rang and he almost dropped it. Judging from the boy's voice, Nino was far from being fine. Sho's heart sank and when his boyfriend asked him to come outside, the student was there faster than Nino could add any explanation.

Nino was there, standing in the driveway to Sho's house that was half-lit by streetlamps, looking like a picture of misery and pressing something against his left temple with one hand while holding his bicycle with the other. His look was lowered and his eyes hidden behind his black bangs. When Sho ran towards him, he could see that the thing Nino was holding was a handkerchief, and the fabric seemed darkened.

"Nino, oh my gosh," Sho murmured shocked, immediately reaching his hand to his boyfriend's face. "Did you ride here like that?! What happened? Let me see that…"

The younger boy cringed at the student's touch but pulled the handkerchief away, and once Sho had carefully brushed away some sticky strands of hair, he exposing a bleeding cut. He swallowed. The worst pictures of how this might have happened were now rushing through Sho's head. His heart was pounding nervously. He reached his hand to take the piece of fabric and searched for a clean corner, which he used to dab some more blood. Nino pulled in some air sharply, but didn't complain.

"Nino, what happened?" Sho asked in a soft voice. He had to hear it from him.

"I… I'm sorry, I didn't know where to go… I…," the boy murmured. 

"What happened?" the other boy repeated, slightly pressing the drenched piece of fabric against the wound.

"Ah… uhm…," Nino still hesitated to tell him, obviously.

"Please don't try to make me believe _nothing_ happened," Sho said, his voice still soft since he didn't want to scold the other, but the worry was obviously there. "You're bleeding…"

"It's – it's OK, really," Nino started; his voice small and throaty. "I just tripped and fell and hit my head and –"

Sho knew it was a lie but he didn't expose it. "We should go to the hospital to have you checked. It might need stitches," he said instead, but then Nino lifted his free hand, grabbing Sho's t-shirt and he looked at him, horrified.

"No!" he pressed. "Please! I don't want to!"

Sho tried not to look too pitiful at his boyfriend when his reaction just seemed to strengthen his suspicion, which was heart-breaking. He wanted to pull Nino into a hug, immediately, but first they really should take care of his injury. 

"Then at least come in and let my mom check you, OK?" he asked Nino, who, after hesitating for another few seconds, finally agreed with a hum.

They parked Nino's bicycle in front of the garage and then Sho took Nino's hand to guide him inside of the house. His mother, who was still confused by her son's sudden disappearance, looked surprised when Sho brought another boy with him. She was an elegant woman, even when wearing only a casual cardigan over her pyjama and when she saw the drenched handkerchief pressed against the boy's temple, she seemed to understand the situation immediately. She stood up, facing the two boys with a worried look.

"I'm sorry for intruding…," Nino murmured before introducing himself to Sho's mother. 

"Don't worry, Sho's friends are always welcome here. You got hurt?" she asked friendlily, immediately offering a smile. Nino didn't reply but Sho guided him a few steps further until they could sit down on the couch. "Oh my, come here and let me see this," Sho's mother said. "How did this happen?"

"I tripped…," Nino murmured. "Fell down… hit my head at the table… I'm an idiot…"

The woman knelt down in front of the boy, lifting her hands to examine his wound carefully, just like Sho had done a few minutes before. "Good, it's not bleeding much anymore. Does your head hurt? Do you feel dizzy?"

"A bit… not too bad though," Nino replied before the woman conducted a few small tests for his reaction and finally nodded.

"Good, seems it's just a cut and a mild concussion probably," she said, smiling relieved. "We'll disinfect the wound, I'll make a few stitches and you'll be as new as before. Continue pressing the handkerchief against the wound for now, it will make the bleeding stop." The woman stood up and headed out of the room.

"It's not that bad, that's great, isn't it, Nino?" Sho said relieved, leaning a bit forward to meet his boyfriend's eyes.

"Do you want me to call your parents?" Sho's mother asked when she came back with a first aid kit in her hands.

"No!" Nino whimpered, immediately.

"Nino…," Sho sighed. The younger boy was holding his hand tightly and his body had started shaking. When their eyes met and Nino's were filled with horror, Sho had a hard time not to blurt out his thoughts.

"No… please, no, she… my mother might be sleeping already and I don't want to wake her up and I… I'm just an idiot, that's all…," Nino blabbered, trying to smile at Sho's mother, failing miserably.

"Nino, you're shaking…," Sho said in a low voice. The worry was eating him up.

"I'm not, everything's OK," Nino pretended. 

"But –"

"It's OK, Sho," the boy's mother chimed in. "Let us just take care about his wound for now, OK?"

Sho looked at his mother. He wasn't sure if she was suspecting the same as he was. He never really talked about Nino to her, wanting to keep everything about the boy for himself for the time being. She didn't know how things were at Nino's home. But she had been active as a doctor for a long time years ago and she still sometimes assisted her husband in the hospital if needed. She surely saw many more things in her life than Sho, probably, her experience could tell…

"Do you want to stay over tonight?" Sho finally asked Nino before he turned to his mother. "It's OK, right, Mom?"

The woman nodded. "Of course! We can lay out a futon in Sho's room for you."

To Sho's relief, Nino seemed to relax a bit and after hesitating shortly, he nodded. "That would be great, thank you very much."

"Once we patched you up, I'll make you guys some cocoa and then you will go to bed, OK? How does that sound, Nino?"

Sho was sure that there were tears in Nino's eyes when the boy looked up to the woman and slightly parted his dry lips to reply in a throaty voice. "That sounds very good, Sakurai-san… thank you."

It didn't take long until cursing could be heard from the Sakurai's living room, caused by the disinfectant burning Nino's skin, followed by an embarrassed "Sorry" for his cursing. Then, soon after – after slurping their promised cocoa - the two boys were in bed, ready to sleep. As planned, a futon was laid out in Sho's room for Nino and the boy had changed into one of Sho's t-shirts that he could wear for sleeping. 

After Nino's aversive reaction to the proposal of contacting his mother, Sho's mother told her son that they should probably wait till the next morning until the boy had calmed down and Sho agreed. Nevertheless, it was hard for him to pretend that nothing happened. Of course. After all, his boyfriend had shown up in front of his door with a bleeding forehead, shaking, and not willing to talk about his probably drunken mother, who he most likely had a fight with, that may not be only on a verbal basis… 

Sho swallowed hard when he tried to imagine the scene in Nino's apartment. He knew that he might be concluding things too fast, but he knew Nino, and he had seen his mother, and piece after piece the puzzle was slowly but surely clicking together, portraying a picture of horror…

Sho tried to suppress a deep sigh. He could understand why Nino might not want to talk about it. For the boy, things were most likely much more complex and complicated than Sho could ever imagine. But he wanted him to trust him, to tell him what was going on, so that he could help him. The student, who had been lying on his back and staring up to the ceiling of his room, turned to his side. The small light on the night stand was still on, so he could see Nino lying there on his futon, his eyes opened and a bit glassy, his look staring into a far distance. It was a picture that Sho had seen so often and this time, the wish to be where Nino was was even stronger than usual. He wanted to be by his side... 

Slowly, Sho crawled further to the edge of his bed and reached out his hand to find his boyfriend's. When he intertwined his fingers with Nino's, the younger blinked, apparently coming back from whatever place his thoughts had brought him to. He turned his head, facing Sho.

"Your mom is really nice...," the boy said. "I thought as the mother of an elite student like you she must be super strict and stiff but... she's nothing like that."

"She really is a nice woman," Sho replied and they fell silent until he parted his lips again. "Nino? Are you alright?" the boy asked in a soft voice, his thumb brushing caressingly over the back of Nino's hand. 

Nino swallowed and pressed Sho's hand firmly as he turned a bit to the side to be able to face him better too. "I don't know, Sho," he finally whispered before his eyes overflowed and a sob escaped from his lips.

"Are you crying?" Sho asked in a whisper, knowing that it was unnecessary to state the obvious. 

Nino didn't reply but the tears running down his cheeks were saying more than needed. Sho didn't hesitate. He flipped back his blanket, crawling out of bed and down onto the futon next to Nino, and slipped underneath the blanket. He let go off Nino's hand just to have his hands free to wrap him into a tight hug. Nino's arms automatically wrapped around Sho's body too and he buried his face into the soft fabric of Sho's shirt. When Nino’s sobbing turned heavier, Sho just pressed his boyfriend closer, rubbed his back and caressed his hair while he let him cry his heart out until he calmed down again. Sho loosened their embrace a bit just to be able to look at Nino who was lying there, exhausted and desperate, a few silent tears still running down his cheeks. Sho leaned a bit forward to kiss them away, before he started talking again.

"You know you can tell me everything, right? If you're ready…"

"I know…," Nino took a deep breath. "I want to tell you but… it's so hard, Sho…"

"If you can't say it… let me guess and just nod if I'm right or shake your head if I'm wrong. OK?" Sho suggested. 

After considering the option for a few seconds, while looking deep into Sho's eyes which almost made the other's heart burst, he finally nodded slowly.

"OK…," Sho said, relieved. Trying to find the right things to ask, he took another few seconds, before he started. "Did you have a fight with another student or some delinquents?"

Nino shook his head. "Never," he added in a low voice. Sho knew.

"You didn't trip, right?"

Nino nodded and Sho's heart started beating faster. He knew that too. He didn't want to be right. But he had to find out the truth to be able to help his boyfriend.

"Did someone hurt you?" he continued asking, his throat feeling thick. "Push you?"

Nino nodded.

Sho took a deep breath and after another pause, he finally dared to ask the inevitable question. "Was it your mother?"

Nino froze in his arms and this was enough. He didn't even need to nod. Sho swallowed hard and again he pulled Nino tighter into their embrace. Nino's fingers buried deeper into the fabric of Sho's clothes. 

"I guess it wasn't the first time, was it?" Sho sighed.

"You knew?" Nino finally whispered against his boyfriend's chest.

"I got a bad feeling at the very least when you refused to let us call your mother and started shaking like crazy," Sho said. "I'm sorry… I wished I was wrong."

The younger boy took a deep breath and looked up to meet Sho's eyes in the dimmed room. "It's not her fault, Sho," he started, sounding desperate. "She was drunk and she was angry at me – of course, I left her alone for a whole week without permission and–"

"Nino, stop," Sho said determined, cupping the boy's face with his hands, looking at him intensely. "There is _no_ excuse for a parent to hit or push their child or to harm them in any way. This is serious; it can't go on like this. We need to tell my mom."

Nino's eyes filled with tears again. "You… you can't do that. They will call the police…"

"Probably."

"And then? What will happen then?" Nino panicked. "They will separate me and my mom and they will send me away!" he hissed, fear dominating his voice. "She is my only family, Sho! I need her and she needs me! And if Mom and I can't be together… I'm a minor, I can't live on my own, they will send me away… I don't want that, Sho, please!" 

The boy was shaking again and Sho pressed a kiss onto Nino's forehead, trying to make him calm down. 

"No, they won't take you away, I promise!" he said. "I'll talk to my parents and we'll make sure they won't send you away. I'll make sure you'll stay here. With me. OK?"

"Sho, you have no idea how much I wished I could stay with you forever but what if they don't let me?" Nino sobbed, his voice breaking. "I'm scared."

"You don't need to be scared," the older boy said, affirmative. "I'm with you. I will always be with you. I'll protect you," he said, right next to Nino's ear. 

When Sho heard another sob by the boy in his arms, he pressed him even closer, rolled him onto his back and then lifted his head, just enough to be able to look down on him, into that sad, tear smeared face. His chest was aching when he imagined what a horrible day this must have been for Nino and he wished with all his heart that maybe, just maybe, his presence could make it a tiny bit more bearable for him. Sho let his fingers carefully brush over Nino's cheek, who closed his eyes slowly, and a second later, he leaned down and sealed his boyfriend's lips with his, trying to put all of his feelings for the boy into that kiss, to show him, that he was _wanted_ , that he was _needed_ , that he was _loved_. 

Nino's lips were dry and soon started shaking when the boy started crying again, but he didn't break the kiss. Instead, he lifted his hands to put them around Sho's neck and all the despair he must be feeling transformed into passion and they didn't stop kissing, sharing one kiss after another. For a long time, their bodies pressed close, their hearts just a heartbeat separated from another.

This night, they fell asleep, embracing each other. Sho did not even think about returning to his own bed. He held Nino in his arms until the boy's mind slipped into a deep sleep, the exhaustion from the past day overwhelming him completely. Sho couldn't sleep for probably another hour, his mind too busy with the happenings, his heart too busy with worrying about his boyfriend. He hated that his suspicion about Nino's mother was true. He hated that Nino had to suffer so much because of her. He knew that the boy was scared about what would happen next, but things had to change. For the better. Now, everything left for Sho was to hope that he would be able to hold the promise that he made to Nino.

That they would be able to stay together.

\+ + +

Next morning, Sho had to convince Nino one more time to go talk to Sho's mother and tell her the circumstances in order to get appropriate help for Nino. After laying out the facts again to his boyfriend, Sho finally got Nino's OK. The boy was nervous, and not only terrified, but in the end he himself had to agree that it would be for the best. Sho took his hand and together, they went downstairs, where Sho's mother was already preparing breakfast for the two boys. The smell was delicious.

"Oh, good morning, you two," the woman said when they entered the kitchen. "I hope you slept well? How are you feeling, Nino? Does your head still hurt?"

"It's OK, thanks, Sakurai-san," Nino replied, shaking his head.

"I hope you like pancakes?" Sho's mother asked with a wide smile, but when she saw the boys' troubled faces, her expression lost its light.

"Mom… we need your help," Sho finally said, pressing Nino's hand. "We have to tell you something about Nino's injury…"

As if she knew what would follow, Sho's mother nodded. They all sat down together around the kitchen table after the woman pulled the pan from the stove in order not to let the pancakes burn, and Sho told Nino's story on behalf of his boyfriend. The woman just listened quietly, understanding, reaching out to put her hand on top of Nino's in between to give him some of her strength. Nino didn't say much, trusting the talking to his boyfriend entirely, to whom he had told everything. How his father was gone for years, how his mother gradually became more and more addicted to alcohol and less and less caring about their home, about her reputation, about her son. How she started throwing things at the boy when he did something wrong or when she was just drunk, frustrated and needed to vent her feelings in some way. He had spoken about how she started blaming him for the fact that the man she loved had left her and her child behind. How she started hitting him. 

A few hours later, Sho's mother had called the respective authorities and then it was Nino's turn to tell his story to a very friendly youth protection officer and the psychologist who accompanied him. They patiently listened to everything he had to tell. Sho and his mother had provided them the dining room for this purpose and after a while they had to be excused to go and wait outside. Sitting on a bench in the garden together, they were now awaiting the outcome of the conversation.

It was warm and a day much too beautiful when considering that on this very day a family would be officially torn apart. The sun was shining, the flowers were in full bloom and the gurgling of the small fountain in the pond in one corner of the garden and the singing of birds were the only things that broke the silence. A silence that was only existing on the outside, Sho thought, because inside of his head it was loud and full of questions that wanted to get out.

"Did you know it already?" Sho finally dared to ask his mother. "That he didn't just fall...?"

"I was suspicious due to his behaviour, to be honest," the woman admitted, sighing. 

"Why didn't you ask him yesterday?" her son asked, curiously.

The woman sighed again before she started to explain. "It might have scared him away if a stranger confronted him with this topic. You see, Sho," she turned towards her son. "Parents are people who children are supposed to trust the most, right? And no matter how they treat each other, in the end, there will always be some kind of connection between them, some kind of thread and when there is danger from outside, people will try to protect this thread with all their might, no matter how damaged or thin it might be." When Sho frowned, she continued. "He didn't want to tell you at first, right?"

"True...," Sho nodded. To be honest, he had wondered why. For him, things were clear. Nino's mother was a danger for the boy and he wasn't able to understand why Nino still wanted to protect her. Yes, they were family but still... that woman was _hurting_ him!

"It's hard to admit that things are going wrong in a family," the boy's mother continued. "In most cases, children don't even _know_ that the way their parents treat them is wrong. They don't know that they are victims of domestic violence, at least not for a long time, until they grow up and learn from somewhere else how things should really be. They think they deserve what they get. They think that they are in the wrong, even if it's mostly not the case. It was the same with Nino, right?"

Sho nodded. "He said it's not her fault..."

"In those cases, it's hard to find out and it's even harder to make them admit that their parents are doing bad things and that they need help," the woman concluded and her son had to agree. "Sho, I'm really proud of you," she then said, causing him to look at her, questioning. "You didn't look away when you saw your friend having a problem and you confronted him with it, because you want the best for him, even if it isn't easy, right? You're a very good friend to that boy and thanks to the trust between you two, we are now able to help him." She smiled.

"Will they separate him from his mother?" Sho then asked another question that was burning his mind.

"They will surely want to keep him away from that woman until things are examined properly," his mother started. "Not that I think Nino is lying, gosh, no, but... bureaucracy, you know? Anyway, in the end, it might be better for mother and child to be separated. His mother seems to have an alcohol problem and she probably is even mentally ill. She might be in need of professional help."

Sho swallowed. "What will happen to Nino then?"

"I think they will suggest for him to go into the care of his nearest relative," the woman replied. "Did he mention anyone to you? Older siblings, an aunt probably?"

Sho shook his head. "No, he didn't. Is it really necessary? I mean...," his heart was now pounding like crazy. "Can't… can't he stay with us?"

"…Maybe for a while," the woman said with a smile. "If he wants. I'd be happy to give him shelter. But in the end, it's probably the best to be with his family. So let's hope that there is someone who will be willing to take care of him like the family he deserves. Like every child deserves."

She was probably right, Sho thought. He would be more than willing to provide love and safety to his boyfriend, which he needed, but in the end, a child also needed a family. A safe place to grow up, people to look up to. Nino didn't have that for a long time of his life. Hopefully, he would be able to find such a place. 

"Mom?" Sho asked once more, after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes?"

"I'm happy and grateful that our relationship is such a good one. Really!" the boy said.

"What are you talking about suddenly?" the woman looked at him surprised. "Of course it is. It's supposed to be, of course. You're a great son and your father and I try the best to be good parents for you and your siblings. Even if you probably think that we're a bit strict sometimes…"

Sho chuckled when he thought that in fact it wasn't that bad. Not when compared to other families. His parents had always been fair. He sighed. Now it was his turn to be fair.

"Is something troubling you?" his mother asked, getting an idea that there might be something else brewing in his mind.

"I think I should be more honest with you," Sho then said, determined. "I don't want to jeopardise this good relationship between us just because of a misunderstanding or something..."

His mother arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"You see...," Sho took a deep breath to collect his courage. "There are two things I need to tell you and maybe, you won't like them."

"OK," the woman replied, still a bit surprised. "Tell me. I'm ready for everything you have to say."

Sho took another deep breath, the nervousness was overwhelming him. It's now or never, he thought, clearing his throat.

"First thing... Nino isn't just a friend. He's… my boyfriend. And I hope you and Dad won't have a problem with that because I don't plan to change that," Sho said, biting his lower lip. He felt his cheeks blushing and his heart beating in his throat, but he meant what he said. He was deadly serious.

Surprisingly, instead of being shocked, Sho's mother chuckled, causing her son to give her a puzzled look. "You know, I also had _that_ suspicion the moment I saw you two holding hands. And I don't have a problem with it. My son is free to love who he wants. And I may say, you have a pretty cute boyfriend," she winked at her son. "I'm happy for you two."

"Thank you!" Sho smiled, embarrassed, but honestly relieved. 

"And what is number two?" the woman asked, tilting her head curiously.

The boy swallowed, the lump in his throat was growing again from the nervousness. But he could tell her, he knew now. He could tell her everything and she would accept it. So he took a deep breath before he finally spat it out. "I don't want to become a doctor. I want to become a teacher!"

Sho was holding his breath, nervously, while he was watching his mother's reaction. The woman first widened her eyes in surprise and for maybe about three seconds, she didn't say anything. Then, her expression softened again and she offered him one of her typical warm smiles. 

"I see, that's great," was everything she said.

"Is... is that OK with you?!" Sho asked, confused.

The woman simply nodded. "Sure, why not? Teacher is an honourable job, isn't it? I'm not too surprised that you might want to choose that path."

Still, her son gave her a perplex look. "But... you and Dad, sister, brother... Don't you expect me to become a doctor too?" he wanted to confirm.

"Sho," the woman said, softly. "I would be lying if I said that your father and I didn't wish for you to become a doctor like us, that's true. You're smart, you're kind-hearted, you would be an awesome doctor, I'm convinced. But if you want to take a different option, it's completely fine and we will support you. It's up to you. It's your future after all and I'm sure, you will be an even more awesome teacher," she concluded with a wide smile.

"So you're not disappointed?" Sho asked, still not believing what was going on. Where was the drama, where was the scolding he expected once he came out with the truth?

"Sho, I would never be disappointed in you. You are my beloved son. I'll support you, no matter what."

There was no drama and no scolding, there was not even a hint of disappointment in his mother's voice, Sho couldn't believe his luck. He realized that all the pressure he had put onto his shoulder, about having grades good enough for medical studies, about having to follow his parents' path, was only self-imposed. He remembered that his parents had been talking about how nice it would be to see him taking over the family hospital together with his brother, but browsing his memory, Sho did not find a single clue that hinted on them prohibiting him from choosing another job, if he liked. 

Sho's heart felt like a ton lighter after having spilled out everything that was weighting on it. Things with Nino, things with his plans for the future. Nino had been right. His parents – because the boy was sure his father would agree with his mother and if not, she would convince him for sure – would accept his choice. Sho's heart was full of gratefulness.

When Nino's interview with the youth officer was finally finished, and Sho and his mother were asked to come back inside, Nino's eyes were red-shot. Sho immediately ran towards his boyfriend, and after receiving permission to leave with him, he brought him up to his room to take proper care of him. He immediately pulled him into a tight hug, not knowing what else he could do for the boy. Even if he knew that his chances were bad, Sho tried his best to cheer Nino up on that day. In the end, Nino didn't talk much, but when the two boys were cuddling under a blanket on top of Sho's bed, watching a movie on the student's TV screen, Nino leaned his head onto his boyfriend's shoulder and Sho knew that things would become better.

"It would be really nice to stay with you," Nino whispered when he pressed Sho's hand which was linked with his underneath the blanket. "Just like this, forever…"

\+ + +

After the authorities checked the case of Nino and his mother properly, they found the still drunken woman at the Ninomiya's apartment. She was furious about the sudden disappearance of her son the day before, calling him names that no child should ever hear from their parents. The woman was admitted to a mental doctor, to check her mental health and for the time being, it was decided, that she and Nino should be separated, to guarantee the boy's safety. 

Sho and his mother explained everything to Sho's father once he returned from work after an awfully long shift, and in the end, the man gave his permission for Nino to stay with the Sakurai's for the time being, making Sho beam and Nino bow in gratitude. 

This would only be a temporary solution though, since the authorities had found out that there was an uncle of Nino, who would be willing to take over custody for the boy until he reached legal age and could be responsible for himself. Since his uncle was living in Tokyo, which was a couple of hours away from their town, staying with him would mean moving. Hence for now - to be exact until the end of the current school year to finish it properly – the Sakurai's home would also be Nino's.

To the boys' pleasant surprise, not only Sho's mother but also his father seemed to accept their relationship without problem. The man seemed a bit more disappointed than his wife about Sho's choice to become a teacher rather than a doctor though, but after receiving a strict look from the woman, Sho's father tried his best not to show it too obviously and in the end even admitted that teaching might probably be a job that fits Sho very well.

While the boy was studying hard for the next few months in order to be able to take the entrance exam to his university of choice, with his goal clearly in front of him, Nino had a bit more trouble figuring out what he wanted to do with his life. At least, he slowly but surely came to the conclusion that going to university probably wasn't such a bad idea. However, some of his grades would need a huge improvement if he really wanted to aim for a scholarship. Nino didn't plan to rely on his uncle too much financially, so studying properly was the only option. It was lucky that he had his smart boyfriend around, who offered his help as much as he could. Soon, Sho's friends even lovingly called the two of them simply the "nerd couple", giggling whenever they saw them studying together at school.

Nino's story became public, or at least it didn't stay a secret since with time, things spread naturally in the neighbourhood. Now, people weren't staring at him any longer because he was supposed to be a misfit and troublemaker at school, but because they pitied him. Nino hated it but Sho told him to just try and ignore it. After all, he didn't pay attention to what people were talking about him before, so why start now? Nino had to admit that his boyfriend was right.

The relationship between the two boys was promising, their love for each other growing every day. They were enjoying the opportunity to live together for a couple of months and were slowly but surely exploring their relationship, without rush but with excitement. It stayed a secret though, thankfully, at least it wasn't known outside of Sho's family or their circle of close friends that the two boys had become a couple during the summer camp. 

Jun, after having no other choice but to accept that Sho's feelings for him would never surpass the friendship status, learnt to live with it. Further, instead of holding onto his unrequited crush, Jun soon seemed to start developing a deeper interest in Aiba, who was apparently a bit overwhelmed by the situation in the beginning. However, he was too nice to say anything, so he would just have to get used to the idea of having a male admirer soon and who knew what the future would bring...

Of course, since he was an open-minded guy, and after the initial surprise, Aiba – who was by the way very happy to see Nino joining their basketball team's audience during practice more often - was also rooting for the couple, giving them a thumbs up whenever they crossed ways. It made Nino laugh, which caused Sho to smile happily. 

Ohno seemed a bit troubled about the situation with Nino – not the fact that he and Sho were a couple, he was completely supportive regarding this, but he seemed to blame himself a little for not realizing the pain Nino went through the past years. Nino had waved Ohno's sorrows off, saying that it was natural that Ohno didn't suspect anything, since it was Nino who had distanced himself from his old school friend when things became hard to bear. Good thing though, since Nino was now part of Sho's circle of friends, he and Ohno were renewing their friendship too.

Time passed by faster than people wanted, exams were written and the school year was over in the blink of an eye. Sho got accepted to his university of choice, Nino's grades had improved remarkably, almost surpassing Jun who had turned his initial antipathy against Nino into a healthier rivalry now, and even Ohno had managed to get accepted into a college, without having Sho or anyone else to help him cheat in the entrance exam. 

Sho and Ohno graduated smoothly and as tradition, they didn't only receive their graduation certificate on a wonderfully warm day in March the following year, but also gave away some of their uniform's buttons to their crushes. While in Ohno's case the boy got rid of all his buttons to spread them among his favourite girls, Sho stuck to giving away only the second of his buttons, which was the closest to his heart, – and of course, he gave it to Nino, who blushed and promised to keep it safe forever.

Soon after, all of them were confronted with taking the next step towards their future. As planned, Nino moved in with his uncle in Tokyo soon to attend the third year of high school there. He was already moaning the fact that he would have to leave not only Sho, but also the rest of the Sakurai's family behind, which had almost become like a real family to him, especially Sho's mother. Wile she promised him that the Sakurai's house would be open for him whenever he wanted to come visit, Nino promised that he would never forget what they did for him and that he would be grateful until the end of his life.

While Nino – upon the recommendation of Sho's parents – had started visiting a psychological consultant every few weeks to work on his past, Nino's mother was admitted into therapy, treating her alcohol addiction as well as mental problem. For the time being, she wasn't allowed to see her son. She didn't seem to be too sad about it, which allowed Nino to slowly but surely stop feeling sad about it too. It wasn't known, if he and his mother would ever come together again, but for now, things were better the way they were.

Of course, the university of Sho's choice was located in Tokyo too, and like it was a great coincidence (or did he plan it?) the campus wasn't that far from Nino's new school. As planned, Nino would move to Tokyo first, about a week before the new school year would start, so that he and his uncle, who didn't have much contact with the boy in the past, would have the chance to get used to living with each other. Sho would follow a few days later, directly moving into his campus' dormitory. 

However, it was a weird situation when Nino and Sho, who had shared a room in the Sakurai's house for more than half a year, started packing their stuff into packing cases, getting ready for moving. Things of course were particularly strange on the day of Nino's departure. Change was in the air and rather than exciting, for the time being it was scary for both of them.

After packing the last of his few items – not that Nino possessed that much stuff anyway – the boy had gone outside onto the balcony of Sho's room, leaning against the banister and looking down into the beautiful garden, which had started blooming only recently. He seemed to be enjoying the view but was pulled out of his thoughts once Sho joined him a few minutes later.

"About a year ago, who would have thought we would end up here together?" Sho asked as he leaned onto the balcony's banister right next to his boyfriend. He bedded his chin on top of his crossed arms and then turned his head to face Nino, smiling. "Do you remember the first time we met?"

"You scolded me for smoking, you were such a jerk, how could I forget that?" Nino chuckled and Sho joined his laughter before he nudged his boyfriend's side, enjoying the slight wittiness that was coming back slowly. Even if it had been part of Nino's mask initially, somehow it _was_ a part of him after all and maybe, Sho even missed it a little bit.

"Hey, it's thanks to my jerkiness that you quit smoking and your lungs are safe now," Sho said, pursing his lips.

"Indeed, what would I do without you, Mr. Health Police," Nino replied, and if he intended to sound ironic, it didn't fully work. He looked at the taller boy who had already stepped closer, and in his eyes, Sho could see a mixture of sadness and love, and honesty. "I'll miss you," Nino whispered, almost inaudible as the wind threatened to carry away his words.

"I'll miss you too, Kazu," Sho said. "Even if we'll see each other again in less than a week... I'll miss sharing my room with you. I can't wait until you graduate from high school and follow me to university."

"What makes you think I'll choose the same university as you?" Nino smirked and arched an eyebrow at his boyfriend who then sneaked his arms around the younger boy's waist to pull him into an embrace.

"Because then, we'll have the opportunity to share rooms again," Sho replied, smirking too, and threw a wink at his boyfriend, causing him to burst into laughter again.

He then leant forward, to capture Nino's lips with his and they lost themselves in a wonderful, sensational kiss that both wished would never end. 

"I'm glad we met, Sho-chan, I really am," Nino whispered when they broke their kiss and slightly pressed their foreheads together.

"Me too," Sho replied in a whisper, feeling his heart overflowing with love for the boy he was holding in his arms. 

A lot of things had happened between them and Sho was still amazed how much had changed not only Nino but also his feelings for him since their first meeting. Back then, he was convinced that Nino was an unpleasant fellow, smoking at the young age of 16, not caring about ruining his health, cheeky and sharp-tongued. He had thought that Nino was up for no good when he kissed Sho just to irritate him during Ohno's party – even if Nino admitted afterwards that he had probably had a crush on Sho back then already. He had decided to give Nino a chance, despite the fact that they didn't seem to get on well in the beginning. Since then, he couldn't believe that he was that much of a misfit as others wanted to portray him. In the end, the simple wish of becoming friends with Nino developed into more when Sho had fallen for him helplessly. And since then, he was in love with that boy, every day, with every cell of his body and mind.

"Kazunari! Your uncle is here to pick you up!" the boys suddenly heard the voice of Sho's mother from downstairs. 

They startled, none of them having heard any car approaching or even the doorbell ringing. Apparently, they had been so occupied with kissing each other, that they hadn't noticed anything around them.

"Alright, thank you!" Nino yelled back. 

"Do you need help to carry down your stuff?" the woman asked.

"I'll help him, Mom, don't worry," Sho replied instead of the boy.

After taking a deep breath, Nino said in a low voice, "That's it for now, I suppose..." 

"Seems so...," Sho added but still, he didn't let go of his boyfriend.

"We'll see each other in Tokyo next week," the younger then said. Happy anticipation was painted in his eyes already. "Don't miss me too much in the meantime." He smiled.

"Same to you." Sho mirrored the smile before he leant forward again to peck Nino's lips once more.

"I can't wait to see you again."

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading! For those who are interested, here is a full PDF-version of the story ^^ http://www.mediafire.com/file/765c5t2724eo108/sky_fish7_Convergence_Full+Version.pdf

**Author's Note:**

> Further notes: I am a non-smoker and I strictly do not encourage smoking, especially not underage people. In this story, I use smoking as a materialized form of character weakness, so to say. Smoking is not cool! Same goes for too much alcohol. Be careful, guys!


End file.
